


A Tale of too many Hawkes

by Topology_no_jutsu



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Genderfluid Hawke, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2019-12-31 22:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18322802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Topology_no_jutsu/pseuds/Topology_no_jutsu
Summary: Aveline thought she had a pretty firm grasp on who she'd escaped Ferelden with.  A trip to the Hanged Man proved her quite wrong on that thought.





	1. Which Hawke are you looking for?

It’d been a year since the Hawke family, what was left of it, ended up in Kirkwall.  Aveline had admittedly not kept up tabs with the family as often as she would have liked, being a mage aside, Hawke had helped her through the darkest of times.  She would rectify this today.

“Rise and shine Hawke” throwing open the door to Gamlen’s house Aveline only saw Bethany.  “Er, the other Hawke.”

“That’s certainly specific, check the Hanged Man, unless you’re looking for my mother” Bethany had made this joke a great number of times now, it never got old.

“Right, thanks Bethany” Aveline turned and headed out, trying to put this rather awkward situation behind here.

“Anytime, not like I’m allowed too many places.”

Armed with this new information Aveline headed to the Hanged Man.  It was perfect, finding Hawke at the bar cut out the travel time to the bar.  Entering the building she expected to find her kind of friend rather fast.  Either Aveline’s sight was going or Hawke wasn’t actually as big as she remembered him to be.  Not knowing what to do next she headed towards the counter to grab a drink, doing her best to ignore the foul looks coming from some of the patrons.

“What’s the strongest you got?” the loneliness from not finding Hawke warranted the stronger stuff this time.

“Got a club I can smack you with?” Corff jokingly lifted said club.  “Or if you’ve got the coin, plenty of beer.”

“I’ll stick with the beer for now, but keep the club handy” Aveline handed him some copper for the drink.  “Don’t suppose you’ve seen Hawke round here?”

“Which one?” Corff always had the latest news.

“Garrett, or I suppose his mom if she’s around?”

“No Garrett but Marian's over there” Corff pointed to someone Aveline had certainly never seen before, but she did look like a Hawke.

“How many members of this family are there?” Aveline took a swig of her drink before starting over.  “Thanks Corff.”

“Course.”

Aveline was a bit hesitant approaching the newest Hawke, not only did she not know her, but this Marian was already talking to someone.  Could that dwarf be wearing a lower cut shirt?

“Ah Aveline” catching her off guard Marian threw an arm over her shoulders and pulled her over to the dwarf.  “Perfect I was just telling my friend here about our daring escape from Ferelden, could use a soberer account of it.”

“I’m sorry, have we met?” Aveline pulled the arm off her shoulders and took a step back from Marian.

“What, course we have it’s me, Hawke, just not Bethany or mom” Marian gave her a rather confused look. 

“Or Garrett?” Aveline hadn’t hallucinated a fourth non-existent Hawke had she?

“Oh fuck” Marians drunken haze gave way to a brief moment of clarity.  “Sorry Varric we’ll have to pick this up another time I’ve apparently forgotten to tell my friend here I exist.”

“Now that sounds like a story” the dwarf, Varric presumably, seemed interested by that statement.  “You know where to find me Hawke.”

“Mind following me somewhere more, private?” Marians raised eyebrow with the question made it come off a bit flirtier than intended.

“Uh, like Gamlens place?” Aveline tried to hide the sudden blush on her face.

“Perfect!” Marian swung an arm over her shoulders again.  “Forgive me I’m a tad walk and can’t drunk to well right now.”

“Well at least you’re not too heavy” almost as suddenly as she’d arrived to the Hanged Man, Aveline left it accompanied by a drunk mystery Hawke.

“Why in the Makers name is it so bright out” Marian used her free hand to block the light.

“It’s noon, when did you start drinking?” Aveline was going to ignore how left out she felt from not being invited.

“It’s noon!  I’ve been drinking since yesterday and nobody bothered to mention that to me?”

“Since yesterday, why in blazes did you decide to do that” as far as Aveline could tell Marian seemed to be the alcoholic of the Hawkes.

“Varric said he could out drink me, as a proud alcoholic I couldn’t let that slide” well that confirms that.

“Right, let’s get you into bed and then maybe later you can tell me whatever it is” trying to open Gamlens door while holding the drunk Marian was much harder than Aveline would have thought.

“What, nah, I’m perfectly fine” Marian tried to stand on her own to prove this, only to topple over.  “See, impeccable balance.”

“I see you found the Hawke you were after” Bethany opened the door up hearing the thud from Marian falling to the floor.

“Sort of?  I was more looking for Garrett if I didn’t just make up that he exists?”

“Course I do” Marian was being carried in by Bethany and Aveline.  “Bethany please tell her I exist, unless I’m a ghost now, that’d be dreadful.”

“Wait, you’re Garrett?” Aveline dropped her in confusion knocking the two Hawkes over.

“The one and only” this would’ve sounded much more confident if it hadn’t been slurred out of the Hawke pile.

“Then, who the hell is Marian?” Aveline was even more confused now.

“Right here” Marian rolled off Bethany and raised an arm.

“What?” now she was just lost.  “Are you Garrett or Marian?”

“Both!”

“Both?  How the hell are you both of them?”

“Magic!”

“You’re not a mage!”

“So?  You’re not a guard why are you asking so many questions?”

“I am a guard Hawke.”

“Bethany run it’s the guards!” Marian was now pitifully slapping her hands towards Aveline.

“You might want to come back later for any kind of helpful explanation” Bethany continued dragging Marian towards a bed.

“I think I’ll come back once I’m drunk at least” Aveline regretted not buying more than one earlier.

“Not a bad plan.”


	2. The dwarf with the extremely low cut shirt.

"Rise and shine we’ve got mail” Bethany opened the blinds up to wake up Garrett.

“Bethany please” Garrett covered his eyes to shield them from the light.  “Have mercy on your dear older brother.”

“Don’t stay out all night drinking and maybe I will” she threw the letters onto his head.

“I’m sorry, I was busy getting us onto that deeproads expedition” Garrett looked over who each letter was from before tossing them all aside.

“You actually did it?” that got Bethany to perk up.

“Er, sort of, we’re going to need a bit of gold first” he hadn’t quite figured out where they’d be getting it though.

“How much is a bit, we’ve still got some saved up from the raiders right?”

“Well, yes, but a bit in this case is more like fifty, or forty and maps of the deeproads.”

“And where exactly did you plan for us to pull that kind of money and maps from?” Bethany was backed to being annoyed with him.

“Odd jobs?”

“Fifty gold worth of odd jobs?  Fat chance of that happening anytime soon.”

“With an attitude like that sure” Garrett felt awake enough to stand up off the bed and stretch.  “But I am a master of this sort of thing.”

“Well then, lead on master of money making” Bethany gestured towards the door.

“Right, to the guard station!” he hoped there might be some spare work there to pick up.

“Let me know how this ends” Bethany sat down and opened a book.

After a quick jaunt across Kirkwall, and a short stop for some food, Garrett found himself in front of the barracks.  It was kind of weird how it was just a part of the viscount’s keep, but that was neither here nor there.  Garrett entered the barracks hoping to find Aveline.

“You look like shit Hawke” nothing got past her. 

“You go drink for drink with some dwarves and then we’ll see who looks like shit” Garrett smiled as he approached her.

“So Varric’s your drinking buddy then?” Aveline raised an eyebrow at him.

“You know Varric?”

“Do you not remember last night when I had to drag you from the Hanged Man to your uncle’s house?” Aveline expected this, but still.

“Does it look bad if I say no?” Garrett at least had the decency to show some shame about this.

“I’ll say it doesn’t look good, Marian” Aveline gave him a hard look this time.

“Ah, I have some explaining to do then?”

“Yes, you do” Aveline pulled him into of the empty rooms nearby.  “So get to it.”

“It’s really not much to explain, sometimes I’m just, a woman?” Garrett hoped that’d be a good enough explanation.

“Oh of course, that’s a perfectly reasonable explanation” she certainly wasn’t pulling any punches with the sarcasm today.  “How do you just, become a woman?”

“I just, wake up one.”

“For no reason at all you just wake up as a woman?”

“Well, not for no reason presumably, I just don’t really understand it.”

“How long has this gone on for?”

“Oh since forever, confused the hell out of my mother the first time.”

“And you never bothered to look into why it happens?”

“Well I can assume the reason behind it starts with a M and ends with me in a circle, so no I haven’t.”

“I’ll admit, that’s a fair point” Aveline hadn’t considered what happens if someone magically changed genders every day and the Chantry caught wind of it.

“I hope I don’t need to stress this too much, but this is a very big secret; so please avoid telling people about it.”

“How many Hawke family secrets have I been let in on?”

“Between two and three at this point?”

“And I’ve kept each one, so no worries on this end.”

“Thank you Aveline.”

“Thank you for stopping by, I thought you might have forgotten with how drunk you were” with their talk over she led him back towards the barrack entrance.

“Since my relationship to the good drink is no secret; I did and I came by here to see if you had any spare jobs?”

“I thought as much, some salesman in Lowtown wants some extra protection” she pulled off some papers from the board for him.  “Doesn’t say what the pay is though.”

“Hopefully it’s a lot” Garrett stored the papers in his belt pouch.  “Anything else?”

“Trying to pay off your tab?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m banking on a earning a favor from the viscount for that.”

“Then why the sudden desire to be a good Samaritan?”

“I need fifty gold to sign onto a deeproads expedition.”

“I’m sorry, you need how much gold for what?”

“You heard me.”

“Did I?  It sounded like you need fifty gold to go on a suicide mission.”

“Well, sort of, but this one at least can make me rich.”

“I’m sure that’ll do you loads of good while your corpse rots in the deeproads.”

“Well, if you have a better plan for earning lots of money fast so we can keep all the Hawke family secrets secret.  I’m all ears.”

A few moments of silence passed.

“Well?”

“Fine, you’re right.”

“Thank you, now if you’ll excuse me, I have a merchant to guard” Garrett headed back to Lowtown.

“Wait” Aveline grabbed his arm to stop him.  “If you get into too much trouble to handle alone, send word my way alright?”

“You’ll be the first to know if a fight breaks out, I promise” he gave her a grin and continued on his way.

The trip to the merchant was uneventful, something he could be thankful for.  The merchant in question was a shorter man who sold glasses.

“Hello there sir, I heard you’re looking to hire some extra protection” Garrett did his best to sound like an impressive individual.

“Yes yes!” the merchant looked quite excited to see him.  “I have a shipment pick up on the wounded coast, but that place is full of bandits.”

“Ha, bandits?” this line always worked.  “I fought off darkspawn in Ferelden, I think I can handle some bandits for you.”

“Not to sound doubtful, but can you do so alone?”

“Of course I can, do you see this sword” Garrett pointed to his trusty two-hander on his back.  “But if it’d put your mind at ease, I can bring some back up.”

“Oh that would be splendid thank you, meet me here in an hour and we can set off.”

With that set up Garrett turned around and went right back to the barracks.  Aveline had asked him to go to her for help after all.

“Back so soon?” good she wasn’t out on patrol.

“So remember how you told me to come to you if trouble was too much for me?”

“You’ve been gone for twenty minutes what did you do?”

“It’s for that job you, he wants extra protection for an escort, and who better than my good friend Aveline?”

“Fine, let’s go” she clearly regret telling him to come to her.

“Well, first I need to grab someone else too” the more the merrier after all.

“There where to?”

“The Hanged Man of course” Garrett didn’t bother mentioning that’s where Varric lived and set off.

“Oh for the Maker’s sake” Aveline followed after him, already prepared to nurse a headache.

With another hike back to Lowtown the two were in front of the bar.  Finding Varric inside of it wasn’t too hard either, a dwarf with low cut shirt and no beard wasn’t that common.

“If it isn’t the friend of my friend, Aveline was it?” Varric certainly seemed to remember last night well enough.

“It is, Varric right?” Aveline couldn’t believe she’d have to introduce Hawke to his own friend.  “This here is Garrett Hawke, Marian’s, uh.”

“Brother, twin brother” Garrett took over from there to make up for her stumble.

“Geez how many Hawkes are there?” Varric was starting to sound like Aveline.

“Quite a few, sorry to ask for help on first meeting” Garrett was doing quite well at acting like he’d never met Varric.  “But any chance you want to help out the brother of a friend on an escort?”

“You willing to buy drinks afterwards?”

“At least the first round.”

“Then I’m in, besides it can’t hurt to see what a co-investor can do” Varric strapped a crossbow to his back and headed off with them.

“Well, this took much less time than expected” there was still another thirty minutes before the meeting time.

“We could play cards while we wait?” Varric had produced a deck of cards.

“I’d rather not lose money I haven’t earned yet” Garrett was a bit poor to be gambling.

“Geez Marian didn’t mention her twin being such a spoil sport” Aveline chuckled at this earning a look from Varric. 

“We Hawkes can’t all be party animals, some of us have to responsible” this was rich coming from Garrett, causing Aveline to laugh louder this time.

“When I meet one who is I’ll make sure to introduce you two them” Aveline couldn’t resist teasing.

“You’re sure as bad a bluff as Marian” Varric got a laugh out of this too.

“And this is why I hate cards” Garrett made a point to ignore the two of them while they waited the rest of the time.

 “Ah, you certainly can deliver mister” the merchant looked more than happy about the Garrett’s entourage.

“I offer only the best services of course” a happy merchant meant more work for Garrett, some big talk for more gold was always worth it.

“That’s what I like to hear, right this way.”

Following the man to they saw the wagon they’d be escorting.  It certainly wasn’t made from the strongest stuff, hopefully if a fight broke out it could at least get out fast.  The route they were taking for the meet up was a fairly safe one, any ambushes would have to come up from the low grounds.  Getting to the meetup point was easy enough, now all they had to do was wait for the delivery.

“So, they usually this late?” Varric was playing with the deck of cards to pass the time.

“He’s never late, today is just busy for him” the merchant was shifting nervously in the driver’s seat.

“You just get nervous like this at all your meetups then?”

“Varric lay off the client please” Garrett didn’t want to lose any reputation with this client.

“I’m not laying in, just asking some simple questions” Varric resumed his card shuffling.

“No sign of bandits either” Aveline was keeping watch from the wagons rear.

“See, nothing to be worried about, the deliveryman is just running a tad late” Garrett was mostly speaking to assure the merchant, didn’t want the man dying of fear out here.

“That’s him!” the merchant stood up in his seat to point out the oncoming cart.

“Just like I said” Garrett stood with the merchant as they waited for the cart.  “Aveline stay on look out, Varric keep eyes out for anyone tailing the delivery.”

“Can do chief” Varric made sure to pay slightly more attention.

The cart pulled up, Garrett could see two people in the back of it in addition to the driver.  None of them looked like bandits though, always a good sign.  The driver was a taller tanned man, his features were sharp like most elves, but his ears weren’t pointed.

“Sorry for the inconvenience old friend” the driver stepped down while the two in back started bringing out some cargo.  “Of course the one time business picks up is when I need to attend to my regulars.”

“It’s no problem, the road is one of the nicer ones on the coast” the merchant seemed in much better spirits now that the delivery was underway.

“I’m glad you think so, it’s been a favorite of mine over the years” he took a quick gander over the landscape.

“Not to interrupt this lovely moment, but looks like we’ve got company” Varric drew his crossbow and moved forward to Garrett.

“They’re not with me” the delivery man turned towards his assistants.  “Get to cover in the cart.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure I can convince them to try a different road” Garrett pulled out his sword and headed to meet them.  “Aveline take care of anyone who can’t be sweet talked please.”

“I’ll keep our man safe don’t worry” Aveline moved up to keep the client safe.

“Why hello there” Garrett approached the small band of people advancing down the road, resting the sword on his shoulder.  “Can I help you gentlemen?”

“I’ll be quick with you, there’s ten of us and, what five of you?” what seemed to be the leader of this group spoke up.  “Give us whatever goods you’ve got over there and we can all be on our ways.”

“I think you misunderstand friend, either you’ll be going your own way now” Garrett pointed back from where they came.  “Or you won’t be leaving at all.”

“Bold words, hope you’re happy they’re your last” the lead man drew his sword and the group rushed forward.

“Actually I hope they’ll be something like, mind the dwarf” the bolts came from on top the delivery cart, and much faster than Garrett expected.

With that quick volley four of the bandits fell before getting to him, Garrett parried the incoming swings with ease.  There were a lot of them sure, but they weren’t endless like the darkspawn.  Garrett cut down the leader and another bandit with a wide horizontal swing.  Of the remaining ten a few turned and ran, the four that didn’t came at him with rage in their eyes.  He dodged away from a hammer swing, using his foot to keep it planted as he cut down the wielder.  Carrying the momentum of his swing he caught and incoming slash aimed for his midsection, deflecting it he rolled forward out of the way of another attack.  With deadly precision Varric caught the two of them with bolts, their bodies hit the road with a thud.  The last man yelled as he charged Garrett recklessly.  Ducking under the initial slice Garrett smashed the pommel of his blade into the man’s face, shattering his nose.  With a heavy kick he threw the man back, giving Varric a clear shot to down him.

“Not too shabby I’d say” Garrett smirked as he sheathed his sword, the stragglers were too far for him to care about.  “Having the world’s fastest dwarf certainly is a benefit though.”

“More like the fastest crossbow” Varric climbed down from the cart as Garrett approached.  “Bianca’s one of a kind.”

“Marian sure knows how to make good friends, how’s our man Aveline?” the two headed back to the others.

“Perfectly safe, good to see you haven’t gotten rusty Hawke” Aveline already had her sword and shield on her back. 

“That was incredible, you stood them down like it was nothing” the merchant was certainly in awe from the encounter.

“If they wanted to scare us they should’ve brought an ogre or two with them” Garrett was doing his best to brag, the admiration of a client was never a bad thing to have.

“That was quite the display, Hawke was it?” the delivery man also looked rather impressed.  “Thanks to an increase in sales, I might have need of an escort of your group’s capabilities.”

“If you’ve got the coin we’ve got the skills I can promise you that” finally some pay off for being as great as they all were.

“A discussion for another time, let’s get this transaction wrapped up on the double” his two assistants began moving some crates to the clients wagon.

“And here is the payment, till next month my friend” with all the goods moved the client payed the delivery man.

“Till then, take care” the delivery man waved them off as the two groups departed.

The trip back was a little slower thanks to the cargo, but just as uneventful as the trip over.  Once they were back at Kirkwall the merchant payed them for the escort before going his separate way.

“Five gold for that, at the rate we’ll have the money in no time” Garrett was rather ecstatic about this.

“Good, the sooner the better” Varric wanted to get the expedition moving as soon as possible.

“Just make sure you don’t waste it all on drinks tonight Hawke” Aveline gave him a knowing look.

“One round and that’s all, can’t be out drinking two night in a row” Garrett let this comment slip without realizing its implications.

“You and Marian drank all last night?” Varric seemed a little skeptical about that.  “Without us running into you?”

“I was at the other bar, uh, the Man Hanged?” not the best lie Garrett had ever come up with sure.

“Weird how I’ve never heard of it after living in Kirkwall for so long.”

“It’s very secretive.”

“And you know of it how?”

“Favor from the viscount?”

“Was that supposed to be more or less believable than the other lie?”

“More, what are the chances of there being a secret bar called the Man Hanged?”

“Not high, but I know what I’m doing after the expedition.”

“Won’t that immediately get you kicked out of the Hanged Man?”

“Hm, I’ll have to ask, you coming with me now or later Marian?”

“Now of course.”

“Hawke, how have you ever kept a secret in your entire life” Aveline couldn’t believe that had really just happened.

“Poorly of course” Garrett gave her a sheepish grin.

“To be fair you did tell me last night I just assumed you were so drunk you were saying nonsense” Varric got a good laugh out of this.

“Then why didn’t you say anything?” Garrett couldn’t understand his motives.

“I thought it’d be funnier if I let you bend over backwards to try and cover up for yourself, and trust me it was.”

“Thanks Varric” Garrett sighed at the dwarfs antics.  “Well let’s get going, those drinks aren’t going to drink themselves.”

“And you still need to tell me about your daring escape from Ferelden.”

“Aveline care to assist me in that?” Garrett was planning on getting rather drunk now.

“Fine but you’ll have to buy my first round as well” Aveline hid her joy at being invited.

“I’m the poor one here, didn’t you just say not to spend it all on drinks?”

“I wasn’t going to drink you out of house and home, just the first round.”

“Alright, but I’m not carrying you to the barracks if it comes down to it” Garrett knew he couldn’t navigate to Hightown drunk.


	3. An elf without the most common sense in the world, but with a heart full of enough blood to make up for it.

“We are now at a grand total of, eleven gold pieces towards the expedition” Marian was counting their small amount of wealth up again.

“Do we have anything non-essential we could sell for more?” Bethany was doing her best to be helpful even while in hiding.

“Well, technically speaking yes we do” Marian fished around in her bag for something.

“What do you have?”

“Remember when we met, oh what’s her name, Flameoth?”

“Flemeth?”

“Yes her!  Well she gave us this necklace that I’m sure is worth something.”

“You still have that!  We were supposed to deliver it to those elves for her, why didn’t you do that already?”

“A mixture of forgetting to do so, and not caring too much about it” Marian was at least being honest here.

“She saved our lives, at least twice over, and you didn’t do that small favor for her?”

“Fine I won’t sell the damn necklace.”

“And?”

“Maker help me, fine I’ll bring it to the elves, but you’re coming with me.”

“I can’t leave the house, you know that.”

“Oh, but Marian can.”

“This already sounds like it’s going to be one of your worst plans yet.”

“We go tomorrow, I’ll go buy things for your disguise, practice your me impression.”

“Oh Maker help me” Bethany knew there was no getting out of this.

“Perfect, keep at it” Marian headed out, the outfit wouldn’t be an issue but they’d need a bit of makeup to get the job done.

“Off on some adventure?” Gamlen was on his way back inside.

“Not today” Marian didn’t know much about her uncle, he was at least nice enough to let them stay there.

“Can you pick up the groceries on your way back then?”

“I suppose I can.”

“This is why you’re my favorite niece half the time” Gamlen waved Marian off before heading in.

Finding the supplies was surprisingly hard for Marian, she didn’t really know much about buying make up or disguises.  Luckily she knew two people who might.

“Why is Varric here too?” Aveline had be recruited as someone with some knowledge of makeup.

“I am a master of disguises” Varric put on a fancy hat to accent his statement.

“If this is for some illegal activity I cannot assist you with it Hawke” it was literally her job to not do so.

“It’s nothing illegal, I just need to disguise Bethany as me for tomorrow so I can take her with me somewhere” it took seeing both their faces for Marian to acknowledge how bad this plan was.  “I don’t want to go alone and this is sort of a Hawke affair so I don’t want to drag you both along.”

“And miss this story?  Good luck keeping me out of it.”

“It’s like you expect it to go awfully” Marian appreciated the support but not the wording.

“And I recall, I also was there when said Hawke affair happened, so it’s my affair as well” Aveline at least knew how to word things in a nice way.

“Agh fine, you can both come to help me drop off a necklace” Marian was fed up with how helpful these two were being.

“Great, now let’s get a disguise together” Varric was all too excited for this.

After a few hours of shopping in Lowtown the group had assembled a suitable disguise for Bethany.  Along the way Marian managed to pick up the groceries she thought Gamlen wanted, he hadn’t actually given her a list.  With that all handled Varric and Aveline agreed to meet up with the Hawkes in the morning.

“Worry not loving family, I have our food” Marian came back into the house holding the groceries and disguise.

“I’m glad somebody cares enough to help out around here” the way Gamlen said this and the tone in the air meant Marian had walked in on the aftermath of an argument.

“And who do you think has been taking care of all the chores around here exactly?” Bethany clearly was the target of Gamlens first comment.

“Is it the illegal M word that I’ve been housing in my hovel?” oh someone had said the hovel word in this fight.

“Would you rather the Templars show up and drag me out of here then?”

“We could certainly have some sunlight here if we didn’t need to keep all our curtains drawn to hide you all day.”

“Please you two” Leandra was trying, and failing to break this up.

“Well while I’m on my way to the Gallows to turn myself in I’ll be sure to let all the loan sharks know about your lies.”

“Oh cause they’d believe you?”

“I’m sure they’d believe your coin purse.”

“Not that this isn’t a lovely time for all, but could we maybe have dinner instead?” Marian also tried to break this fight up.

“That sounds like a wonderful plan, I’m sure everyone will be much less cranky after some food” Leandra jumped on Marian’s suggestion to end the conflict.

The two stared each other down for a few moments before heading to separate rooms.  Marian sighed, they found something new to fight about every other day it was insane.  Leandra started to prepare food for dinner, trying to hide how upset the fighting had made her.  Marian helped her.

“I just wish they could get along better” Leandra was the first to speak.

“I know mother, I do too” Marian started peeling the potatoes with a knife. 

“If Bethany wasn’t cooped up all day I’m sure that would help but it’s too dangerous.”

“Actually, we were planning on going out together tomorrow, to deliver that necklace from Flemeth.”

“That’s absolutely too dangerous, what if the Templars see you both?”

“I have a disguise for her, it won’t be Garrett and Bethany it’ll be Garrett and Marian leaving the city.”

“This sounds like an awful idea, please tell me you’re joking?”

“You said it yourself mother, Bethany has been cooped up for too long and needs a chance to get out.  It’ll be a quick delivery and then we’ll be right back here I promise.”

“No it’s not safe, I can’t lose Bethany too” the wavering of her voice brought back the unspoken guilt.

“You won’t, mother please trust me” Marian knew what this was about, it somehow always came back to this.

“No.”

“This isn’t what Carver would want, for you to keep Bethany locked up and use the Templars as an excuse for it” Marian also knew that this would not be taken well.

“How dare you, none of know what he would want because he’s dead, my Carver is dead” she didn’t say it, but the ‘because of you’ was implied all too clearly.

Marian continued in silence, as often as Gamlen and Bethany fought, Leandra had said this to her.  They all grieved for him, but this was just cruel.  Dinner was silent that night, afterwards Bethany and Marian cleaned the table.

“About tomorrow” Marian didn’t want to upset her mother, but she also didn’t want Bethany to be trapped.

“I’m sorry for calling your plan stupid earlier, I’d rather go out disguised as Gamlen than stay inside another day” Bethany had changed her tune about this quite a bit.

“Well” this was exactly what Marian had not wanted to be the case. “You need to stay here.”

“What?  After you spent all of today getting everything ready?  No I’m going.”

“Bethany please, think of mother.”

“What does mother have to do with this?”

“She doesn’t want you to get caught because of this whole ordeal, so maybe we should wait till you try out the disguise?  I can deliver it alone.”

“No I’m going, that’s final, and if mother has a problem with it she can tell me herself” Bethany was now really the time to go through a rebellious phase?

“Fine, but you have to deal with in the morning not me” Marian knew it’d fall to her regardless, but saying it helped.

“I will.”

“Good.”

“Great.”

The two retired to their beds, there was certainly going to be commotion in the morning.  The night passed without incident at least, and in the morning Garrett helped Bethany put on the disguise.

“And what exactly is this” Leandra of course wasn’t just going to not check in on them.  “I made myself very clear last night did I not Garrett.”

“Oh so you do still know my name” Garrett whispered this under his breath, not wanting to open that sore wound up.

“I don’t recall being asked about it” Bethany stood up to face her.  “Even though it’s my choice.”

“As your mother I forbid this outrageous plan, it’s going to get you caught by the Templars and we’ll never see you again.”

“Good, I’m sick of being locked up in here.  If the Templars arrest me I’ll at least be able to stop hiding every day, and if they don’t even better.”

“You don’t mean that, we’ve worked so hard for your whole life to keep you safe.”

“By hiding me away like I’m some freak of nature, I’d rather end up with the other mages than live like that” Bethany ended this conversation by walking out past her.

“For the record, I tried to do as you asked” Garrett just wanted this to be known as he went out after Bethany.

Bethany was standing just outside the house, her fists balled at her side in anger.  Once Garrett was outside with her she took off towards the gates with him in tail.

“Can you believe her?  It’s like I’m a child still, she wasn’t even going to bother talking to me about it.”

“Could be worse” Garrett took the lead since, Bethany didn’t actually know how to get there.

“How could it be worse exactly?”

“She could blame you for Carvers death and act like you’re not even her child.”

“I’m sure I’ll be getting an earful of ‘I wish Carver had survived instead of you’ when we get back if that helps?”

“It really doesn’t, let’s just deliver the necklace” Garrett would rather not think about the carver guilt spreading even further.

“I’ll be honest, if I saw this a week ago I’d lose my mind” Aveline still looked like she wasn’t prepared to see both Marian and Garrett at the same time.

“How did you never notice?  We were on a boat together for two weeks?”

“I had to kill my own husband beforehand I was a little busy grieving to keep a headcount of Hawkes” Aveline had a fair point for this one.

“I’m sorry” Bethany had clearly forgotten about that.

“I’m over it.”

“Right, let’s just get a move on before anyone else brings up people who died in Ferelden please” Garrett hoped this was possible.  “And Aveline did you bring the extras?”

“Yup, here you are Marian” Aveline handed her a sword and shield.

“I don’t need these brother” Bethany held them in the worst way possible.

“Yes you do Marian.”

“No I don’t.”

“Yes you do, since Marian is not an M word and need weapons to fight” Garrett waited till they were outside the city to say that.

“Oh right.”

“Did you really forget that?”

“I was busy.”

“It’s been ten minutes, ten minutes.”

“Look, I had other things to worry about, like why is the dwarves shirt cut so low?”

“Is it really that low?” Varric looked at his own shirt unsure.

“It’s the first thing I noticed when I met you” Aveline spoke up.

“Actually me too” Garrett wanted him to admit it was that low.

“Nah you’re all just crazy, Fereldens don’t understand dwarf fashion.”

“I’ve met plenty of dwarves Varric, they all didn’t wear shirts like that” Garrett had fought with plenty in King Cailans army.

“Nah those most have been weird surface dwarves, doesn’t count.”

“You’re a surface dwarf Varric.”

“I don’t have time to explain the intricacies of dwarven life styles right now, but I’m really not.”

“You live on the surface, and have done so for many years, what am I missing here?” Garrett refused to believe it was more complex than that.

“You’ve lived in Kirkwall for a year now right?”

“Yes and?”

“Well are you suddenly a native of Kirkwall?”

“No.”

“Exactly.”

“Are, are surface dwarves just the ones born on the surface?” Bethany sounded as lost as Garrett was.

“No of course not.”

“Then your example doesn’t work at all.”

“It’s the exact same thing trust me.”

“Can you please just give up this conversation?” Aveline had had enough of this.

“Fine” Garrett threw his hands up in exasperation.  “We’re almost there anyways.”

“That was, weirdly fast” Bethany had somehow not noticed them nearing the mountain.

“We’ve been walking for an hour Bethany it wasn’t fast at all” Garrett couldn’t believe she’d missed that.

“We have not been walking for an hour, it’s been twenty minutes of bickering tops.”

“I’d say it’s been almost two hours really” Aveline checked the sun to be sure.

“Two hours!  That’s impossible.”

“Welcome to not inside the house, time flies out here sister” Garrett gave her a pat on the back.

The group stopped as some arrows cut them off, hitting the ground in front of them.  Looking up they could see some elven warriors with bows drawn.

“Halt, you’re not permitted here” the left one spoke up.

“Were here to drop of a necklace” Garrett held up the necklace.  “It’s from, oh what’s here name, Flamgoth?”

“Flemeth” Bethany corrected him and smacked his head.

“Flemeth?” the elves looked at each other wide eyed.  “Go and speak to Keeper Marethari.”

“Thank you” Garrett led the group into the camp.  “Now everyone just be real calm while were here ok, no being elf racist.”

“Hawke none of us hate elves, why would you even say that” Aveline couldn’t believe him.

“Look, I didn’t vet you all before asking you to be my trusted companions on dangerous missions.  I just wanted to cover my ass in case of disaster.”

“Also Aveline could you refer to us by name, since Hawke is both our last names” Bethany had a good point.

“What, but, he’s Hawke.”

“Yes, and so am I, we’re related.”

“I’m with Aveline here, we can just call you little Hawke if we get confused” Varric wanted to chime in now.

“Why am I little Hawke?”

“You’re younger now please stop talking people are staring and I wish I’d left you all in Kirkwall” Garrett couldn’t believe them all.

“Fine” the three of them all muttered this more or less.

“Ah, I was wondering when you would show up” an older looking elf woman greeted Garrett as she approached them.  “I am Keeper Marethari.”

“You’ve been expecting us?” Garrett was a little thrown off by that, but held up the necklace.  “Well, here it is.”

“Ah good.”

“Are you going to, you know, take it?” Garrett had been holding it out for some time now.

“Oh, no” Garrett was starting to regret coming at all.

“Why not, we came all the way here to deliver it” Bethany now spoke up, also a little annoyed.

“Well, first I need you to take it to peak of the mountain here and perform a ritual upon it.”

“Why the hell do you need us to do that?”

“To complete your end of the deal of course.”

“Our end was to bring this to you, it is now done please take it” Garrett really didn’t want to do that.  “Besides, none of us are mages we can’t perform a ritual.”

“Oh my first will be going with you do to it, since it’s an elven ritual.”

“Do you enjoy speaking in an intentionally aggravating way?” Aveline now had had enough.

“Whatever do you mean?” Maretharis tone clearly gave away that she did.

“You know what, fine, whatever, let’s go do this ritual and then we can be on our way” Garrett could tell they didn’t really have any other options.

“Perfect you’ll find Merrill on the way” she pointed towards the way up the mountain.  “I hope you find her nice enough.”

“Why’s that?” that weird phrasing got Varrics attention.

“Oh she’ll be going back to the city with you of course.”

“Ok, we can discuss that later, but no she’s not just to get that out in the open now” Garrett was done with this place. 

“Safe trip” Marethari left them on those ominous words.

“I bet we run into zombies” Varric was too enthusiastic about that.

“I’m thinking giant spiders” Bethany added to his pot.  “Aveline?”

“Bandits” another few pieces of copper in the pot.  “Hawke?”

“I want there to be a dragon” Garrett tossed in some copper as well.

“No, why, no, why?” Bethany was very thrown off by that bet.

“I just really want to see a dragon, get off my back” Garrett walked off not wanting to be questioned about his desires any further.

“We’re doing this every time we go out now” Varric needed to get some gambling in somehow since no one would play Wicked Grace with him.

“Agreed, now after our fearless leader” Aveline and Varric followed Garrett.

“Being out of the house is so great” Bethany was having such a great time, annoying elven Keeper aside.

The three of them quickly caught up to Garrett on the way to the trail.  The mountain was huge, something none of them were too thrilled about.  Hopefully peak didn’t mean the same thing in elven as it did to them.

“Look, let’s just get up there and do the ritual, no one complain about the damn mountains size please” Garrett didn’t want to deal with a bunch of whining.

“Actually Sundermount is home to a shrine of Mythal, so it’s not very damned is it” a smallish elf woman spoke up, appearing next to Garrett and scaring the hell out of him.

“VARRIC SAVE ME” Garrett jumped back, spooked to hell and back.

“Is Varric what you people call your god?” the elf woman gave the others a curious look.

“YES” Varric quickly yelled this before anyone else could speak up.

“Oh, fascinating” the elf woman pulled out a small book and wrote something down. 

“Who the hell are you and why are you just hiding here waiting to scare helpless people like me” Garrett, after catching his breath, flipped right into aggression mode.

“I’m Merrill!” Merrill clearly didn’t read his tone very well as she responded in a very excited tone.  “The Keeper told me you’d all show up eventually oh this is so exciting!”

“I’m sorry, but how did she know we’d show up exactly?” Bethany was not very sure how they could know that.

“Oh you know.”

“Give me a straight forward answer or I’m throwing you off the mountain” Bethany was not in the mood for another round of this.

“But, we’re not exactly on it yet” again the harshness of the words seemed to have gone over her head.

“Look, Merrill, we’d really like to just get this whole ritual over and done with, can we hurry along?” Aveline decided to take a gentler approach to handling Merrill.

“Oh of course!” Merrill seemed to light up at the mention of the ritual.  “I got so excited seeing outsiders I almost forgot, let’s go!”

The four hurried after the surprisingly quick woman.  The trail up the mountain wound in a rather difficult path, causing all of them to slow down.  It didn’t take long, even with their current pace, to reach a cave entrance.

“Please say there’s a dragon in there” Garrett wanted it so badly.

“Dragon?  Oh no, lots of spider though.”

“Ha, called it” Bethany was going to enjoy all that copper.

“This trip was already disappointing, but now even more so” Garrett sounded very dejected now.

“Oh don’t worry, it’ll be quick as can be I promise” Merrill led them into the mountain.

The following hour of their adventure was filled with: Spider webs, Giant Spider webs, Spiders, Giant Spiders, Giant Spiders that shot normal Spiders, and more webs.  Luckily for the group Merrill was a mage, and one who could shot fire.  This sped up their travel time a great deal.

“That was so fun wasn’t it!” Merrill wasn’t very good at reading the room either.

“I hope to never see another spider in my life, and if I do, I will cry” Garrett did not like spiders.

“Oh quit whining brother” Bethany at least was having a great time.

“Once we’re home I’ll stop” Garrett sheathed his sword and took some deep breaths.

“I’m with Hawke, those things, are just too big” Varric clearly was shaken up by the ordeal.

“They’re just bugs” Aveline clapped the both of them on the back, unshaken by the large spiders.

“The good news is, we’re here!” Merrill pointed to a large graveyard nearby.

“That is the best news of the day” Garrett was so happy about this.

“One quick ritual and we’re on our way brother” Bethany followed Merrill into the graveyard.

“Music to my ears” Garrett too went in.

“Be careful not to step on anything here, don’t want any vengeful spirits after you” Merrill was carefully moving through the graves.

“Like that one?” Varric pointed his crossbow at the suit of armor that rose from the ground.

“Oh, exactly like that one!”

“Merrill.”

“Yes?”

“MOVE” Garret grabbed her out of the way of an attack.  “Vengeful spirit is not the time for standing around!”

“Right” Merrill pulled out her staff and started preparing a spell.  “If you can just give me a few moments I’ll have it taken care of.”

“About that” Garrett’s sword harmlessly passed through the spirits body as it grabbed him.

“Oh to hell with it” Bethany threw down her sword and blasted a bolt of magic at the spirit, causing it to drop Garrett.  “All non-mages just try not to die right now.”

“Oh you’re a mage too!  How exciting!”

“FOCUS PLEASE” Garrett was doing his best to avoid the spirits attack still.

“This counts as undead right” Varric was firing bolts into the creature, surprisingly they seemed to hurt it.  “Lyrium tipped bolts never let me down.”

This “battle” mostly involved the following: Garrett and Aveline would block its attacks using their sword or shield respectively.  Bethany and Varric pelted it from afar to stop it from actually harming either of them and to keep its attention off Merrill.  Merrill stood in the center of the graveyard channeling magic for her spell.

“Any second would really be great Merrill” Aveline was now ducking under attacks after having her shield ripped off her arm.

“I’d really like it to be this one” Garrett had collected a few scrapes from the thing, his great sword was not the best for parrying.

“Ok, but everyone has to promise to be nice to me afterwards” Merrill finished channeling and slashed open her hand.

With the blood came a chill in the air, the hair on Garretts neck stood up as the spirit stopped moving, slowly turning to face Merrill.  The air was heavy as some other presence filled it, the danger of the spirit paled in comparison this feeling of dread.  Then, with the same suddenness as its arrival, the presence was gone along with the spirit warrior.  Merrill fell to her knees with exhaustion as the air cleared.

“She’s a-” Bethany started but was stopped by Varric.

“She did just ask us to be nice about it.”

“That was before she called a demon here!” Bethany was outraged by how calm he was trying to act.

“Not a demon, a spirit” Merrill shakily stood back up and dusted herself off.  “I couldn’t think of a better way to handle it.”

“So you turn to blood magic?  That right there is why mages everywhere are hunted by the Templars and branded as dangerous.”

“Bethany, she did just sort of save us from an evil spirit, lay off a bit” Garrett enjoyed not being killed by an evil spirit a great deal.

“Are you all serious?  She could have gotten us all killed!”

“Can we just do the ritual and wrap this up” Garrett didn’t want to deal with this right now.

“Does this ritual involve any blood magic?” Bethany gave Merrill a very accusative look.

“No it’s just a simple prayer” Merrill could pick up on Bethany’s current detest for her.

“Good” she crossed her arms and stood away off from Merrill.

“Here’s the necklace” Garrett gave it to her.  “I for one, appreciate the help.”

“Thank you” Merrill gave him a small smile before beginning the ritual.

As the ritual ended, something rose from the necklace.  Someone, and a familiar one at that.

“Now, today has been very strange, but this is a bit much for me” Garrett was not prepared for Flemeth to just, show up out of a necklace.

“If you think today is strange, I pity you” Flemeth gave a short laugh at him.  “But I must thank you, those who would honor a deal are few and far between.”

“So, you just, are here now?  Was that some kind of teleportation magic?”

“Do you really want an explanation of what has come to pass?  Or is it enough to say, you have saved my life, a fine repayment for me saving yours.”

“So you really did meet a legend damn” Varric floored by this.

“I never lie about dragons Varric, never” Garrett had a code.

“I shall take my leave now, destiny does not like to wait long after all” Flemeth turned to leave.

“Safe travels and all then” he really didn’t know what to say to her after seeing that.

“A piece of advice” she turned back one last time.  “We stand upon the precipice of change.  The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss.  Watch for that moment, and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap.  It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly.”

“Big words coming from the woman who can turn into a dragon” Garrett smirked as she laugh before transforming.  “Well, my day has been made, we saw a dragon.”

“How the hell did we see a dragon before we saw bandits” Aveline was certainly mad about losing money to that.

“Because life sometimes gives back to those who deserve it.”

“So, um, not to sound rude but” Merrill spoke up now.  “I may need a place to stay the night.”

“I’ll see what I can do, hope you don’t mind city elves” Varric, the richest of them, at least had connections.

“Oh, are they nice?”

“Sure, let’s go with that.”


	4. Let's not throw around the A word alright?

“Oh this is so exciting” after spending the night at the Hanged Man with Varric, Merrill was now being shown her own ‘house.’

“How did you find this place Varric?” Marian was surprised by how large this unoccupied house was.

“Oh the elves around here said it’s haunted and refuse to live in it, sounds perfect for her” Varric dusted off the shelf he was looking at.

“Oh a spirit lives here!” Merrill excitedly started cleaning things as well.  “I hope it’s friendly!”

“I can assume it’s not if the locals have abandoned this place because of it” Marian didn’t want to be harsh on her after she was kicked out her own clan, but she also didn’t want her to get picked up by the Templars.  “If you meet the spirit, ask it to leave please.”

“But the spirit lives here, that’d be rude Hawke.”

“Merrill, things in the city are a little different than they are in a Dalish clan, magic is a big no-no.  Communing with spirits, is a much bigger no-no.  Ask it to leave or grab us to kick it out.”

“Why can’t I use magic exactly?  You seem to be allowed to, is it a human thing?”

“I cannot use magic so no it’s not a human thing.”

“But you did just yesterday on the mountain, I was there, so was Varric, oh and the armored lady, and your brother!”

“Yes Merrill I am aware that we all were on the mountain yesterday, as you said, I was there.”

“And you used magic there!”

“No, I did not use magic on the mountain.”

“Are you saying I’m a liar?”

“No, you just are clearly confused about what happened yesterday.  You were doing your whole trance thing so you must have missed me shooting arrows from a bow.”

“But you didn’t have a bow with you?  Right Varric?”

“Varric please tell Merrill I had a bow with me” Marian did not want Merrill running around telling people she was a mage.

“I’m going to stay out of this if you don’t mind” Varric continued dusting things off.

“Why are you trying to say you didn’t use magic yesterday?” Merrill was really persistent about this point.

“Because I didn’t use any magic yesterday” Marian would have to make sure Merrill and Bethany never interacted again while she was in disguise.

“You said, ‘Oh to hell with it, all non-mages just try not to die right now’ and then started blasting magic.  How was that not magic?”

“Well” Marian was going to have a firm talking to with Bethany later.  “That wasn’t me?”

“What?” Merrill was much more confused by this.  “But you said you were on the mountain, and I saw you there, so then how wasn’t it you?”

“Well I was there yes, I just wasn’t the one casting spells” Marian was no telling the truth, just poorly.  “I was swinging a sword.”

“You’re the armored lady?  But she has red hair?  And freckles!”

“No I’m not the armored lady Merrill, the other one who was swinging a sword yesterday” Marian knew she should just say it at this point, but was too dedicated to being sly about it.

“Well yes you did swing a sword in the caves when we fought spiders I suppose” Merrill was not making this easy.

“No that wasn’t me either.”

“Well now you’re just pulling my leg, how can you have been there and not been anyone who was there.  Unless.  No way.”

“Yes way” Marian knew she could do it.

“You’re me!” Merrill really, this was your epiphany.

“No Merrill I’m not you, why would you even guess that?”

“Well it’s either me or Varric and I can see him over there.”

“Really?  Is there no one else who was on the mountain with you yesterday that you haven’t guessed yet?”

“The revenant?”

“The what?”

“The monster we fought on the peak.”

“Are you even trying to guess now?”

“I’m just really lost to be honest.”

“Garrett?” Marian was just going to give her the answer now.

“Hm, Garrett” she looked deep in thought for a few moments.  “No don’t be crazy he’s not a mage.”

“I’M GARRETT” Marian was past her limit of this.

“What, but you said you were Marian?  Am I-”

“No you are not Marian, I am Marian and Garrett I just swap between them at dawn” that should clear things up a little.

“That sounds a lot like something a mage could do, oh I get it, every things perfectly clear now ‘Garrett’” she gave a wink, showing she clearly still didn’t understand.

“Merrill.”

“Yes Marian?”

“Please come with me so you can understand which thing is a true secret and which is just not true” Marian decided two birds one stone was a good plan.

“Oh this is going to be fun!  I’ve never met other mages besides the Keeper” Merrill dumped some of her things on the floor and happily went along with Marian.

“Varric, this will be funny to watch if you want to come?” Marian wanted some back up for the ensuing disaster.

“I’m good, for once this is a story I’m fine to miss” he must really like cleaning with how much dusting he’s done.

The two set off.  The trip was fairly quick though, since Merrill’s new house was also in Lowtown.  The convenience of being poor and/or an elf.  Arriving at Gamlen’s Marian led her inside.

“Bethany please come out and help me explain I’m not a mage” Marian had to call out to her since she seemed to be hiding.

“Who?  No Bethany’s here” her Gamlen impression had gotten surprisingly good.

Marian walked over and opened the door she was hiding behind, dragging her out to the main room.

“This is Bethany, my younger sister and one time Marian impersonator” Marian presented her to Merrill.  “She is a mage.”

“Well now I’m just entirely lost, who was on the mountain yesterday then?” Merrill took a seat and held her head in her hands.

“Both of us, I was Garrett yesterday and she was Marian so she could leave the house” Marian explained this slowly this time.  “But today I’m Marian so she can’t run around dressed up as me.”

“How does that work exactly?” Merrill seemed to finally get what was going on.

“Magic probably” Marian shrugged.

“But you said you’re not a mage!” Merrill pointed accusatively.

“She’s not, I am, she’s just weird” Bethany took this chance to be rude.

“I am not just weird, it just doesn’t make any sense is all” Marian knew it was really weird.

“Is it blood magic?” Merrill’s curiosity was reignited.

“No!” Bethany quickly tried to shoot that down.

“Well, we don’t know it’s not blood magic?” Marian hadn’t ever seriously considered that option before.

“Oh, fascinating” Merrill walked over to Marian and started looking her over.  “Does it hurt when you change?”

“I mean, I’m not awake when it happens so no?”

“Hm, you’re a bit shorter when you’re Marian.”

“I suppose?  Is it that noticeable?”

“Only a bit” Merrill pinched her face.  “You don’t feel like you’re made of magic.”

“Ow, and what does that mean” Marian rubbed the pinched part of her face.

“Well mages just feel different you know?  Like they’re a little part of the fade away from the fade.  You just feel like a body.”

“So it’s not magical?” Marian couldn’t follow this line of reasoning.

“Maybe, do you eat lyrium regularly?”

“No I don’t, isn’t that dangerous to just touch?”

“Well, yeah mostly” Merrill developed a thoughtful look.  “Ever met any spirits?”

“Not as far as I know?” Marian certainly didn’t think she’d met any.

“Can I test?”

“How do you test that exactly?” Marian had known her for a day and didn’t want to just say yes in case of danger.

“Remember on the mountain when you promised to be nice, that still holds.”

“If it’s something weird I’m not letting you do it.”

“It’s not weird.”

“Well, what is it then?”

“I just, need some of your, blood.”

“NO” Bethany activated anti-bloodmage mode.  “BLOOD MAGIC IS BAD.”

“It’s not blood magic, just a…”

“Just a what Merrill?” Marian was giving her the benefit of the doubt here.

“Smell test….”

“You’re aware of how weird that is correct, likely acutely aware?”

“Spirits and demons make blood smell differently” Merrill seemed to not see how weird this was.

“Bethany?”

“I mean, it’s weird, but” oh why was there a but?  “We don’t have a better way to test it.”

“It’s completely harmless I swear” Merrill was not very assuring with that comment.

“Ok when people say that, there is in fact always harm.”

“Well, I do need some of your blood for this, not a lot!  Just a small amount.”

“If, and I mean if, I say yes and let you do this, no one else here’s about this got it” Marian swept her gaze onto Bethany.  “Or else.”

“Of course!” Merrill clearly missed the underlying threat, or was just too excited to care.  “Where can I make a cut for the blood?”

“Hm” Marian looked over her arms, her gauntlets kept the pretty covered so she had to remove one of them.  “Just try and make it quick.”

“Of course” Merrill produced a small knife from her belt and made held it against her arm.  “Ready?”

“Yes I’m ready just, ah” Marain was cut off by the brief moment of pain.

The wound was just a small cut, the goal was just to get some blood after all.  Merrill brought the blood to her nose to smell it.  Bethany came over and healed the wound for Marian, didn’t want it getting infected after all.

“What’s the verdict?” Marian really hoped she wasn’t an abomination this whole time.

“Well, it’s certainly not a demon” oh this couldn’t be good. 

“But?”

“It seems like a spirit of some kind.”

“What kind?” Bethany didn’t like the look of this.

“I’m not really sure, I can’t exactly identify what type of spirit by smell alone, just that it’s no demon.”

“How can we find out?” Marian would rather not have a mysterious spirit in her.

“I suppose when you sleep we could ask?” Merrill didn’t sound too confident in that.  “I sort of know a spell for that.”

“Now when you say sort of” Marian didn’t know quite how that made her feel.

“You are not using any blood magic on my sister Merrill” Bethany took a firm stance here.

“It’s not blood magic!” Merrill held up her hands in defense.  “Just a ritual I’ve seen the Keeper do a few times, it lets others enter your dreams.”

“Oh, sorry for the accusation” Bethany had maybe gotten a head of herself there.

“I’m just, not very good at the ritual, so I’ll have to go in instead of sending someone else, if that’s alright” Merrill for once understood this was a weird statement.

“Then no, you can’t just go putzing around someone else’s dreams” Bethany didn’t want her to at least.

“You promise not to feed my soul to any demons?” Marian had done worse things in her life.

“Of course I wouldn’t!” Merrill was enjoying being trusted.

“Hawke family huddle real quick” Bethany pulled Marian aside.  “This is a stupid idea and you shouldn’t do it.”

“We said the same thing about our disguising you plan didn’t we?” Marian really wanted to know what kind of spirit it could be.

“This is on a whole different level of bad idea sister.  What if she leads a demon there?”

“She just said she wouldn’t have some faith Bethany.”

“Even if she doesn’t intend to it can happen, demons are conniving and relentless.”

“And I’m you’re older sister, I can handle myself awake or dreaming” Marian gave her a pat on the back.  “And I get the added bonus of avoiding mother even longer.”

“Oh no, it’ll be me, her and Gamlen tonight, sister please.”

“You decided to be all rebellious yesterday not me” Marian was not dealing with the aftermath of that, mother already hated her enough.  “Best of luck Bethany, let’s go Merrill!”

“Oh today has been so much fun” Merrill happily followed Marian back to the Alienage.

Marian helped her clean up the house some more, Varric had gotten her a bed from somewhere.  He’d also done a fine job dusting the place, well the parts he could reach at least.  Marian finished the dusting and arranged the few furniture items they’d gotten Merrill.  The place was already looking much better.

“Remember, if anyone throws rock through your windows throw it back” Varric was giving her the Lowtown tricks.  “Always aim for whoever’s running, it’s always the guilty ones who run.”

“Oh it’ll be just like when I lived with the clan” Varric had never seen someone excited about that before.

“To be clear, this is a bad thing, and always throw the rock back.  Gotta build up your reputation.”

“As a rock thrower?”

“Something like that yeah” Varric took his leave.

“What a nice man” Merrill clearly didn’t understand his advice.  “Does he get cold with how low his shirt is?”

“I never thought about that” Marian would have to ask him about it.

“Maybe Kirkwall just stays warm all year long?  He said he was born here so it’d make sense.”

“Wait, Varric told you he was born in Kirkwall?”

“Yeah it’s how he knew about this house, why?” Merrill had missed Varric’s lie the day before.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m going to have some words with him tomorrow though” Marian fucking knew it.  “Enough of that though, let’s do the magic!”

“Right!”

“So, what do I need to do?” Marian, of course, didn’t know how the spell worked.

“Oh right!  You just need to go to sleep.”

“That makes sense yeah, I hope there’s no mice here” Marian picked a spot on the floor to lay down.

“You don’t want to sleep up on the bed?” Merrill gave her a confused look again.

“If this was all some intricate trick to get me to sleep with you Merrill, I’m impressed.”

“Well, I guess we both would fit on the bed yeah” Merrill looked at the bed.  “It’s sort of small though, I just don’t want to be a bad host.”

“Yeah didn’t think you’d catch that one” Marian smiled a little.  “But it’s your house so I’ve got the floor.”

“What, isn’t that bad hosting?  Oh by the dread wolf, I didn’t even make you any dinner.”

“It’s fine Merrill, magic ritual more than makes up for it.”

“Oh thank goodness, I’d hate to be a bad host to my first friend in the city.”

“You’d say we’re friends?” they met yesterday.

“My bars a tad low for friends.  You’ve trusted me a grand total of twice so you’ve exceeded it by quite a bit.”

“Well you saved me from an undead thing on a mountain, so I’d say we’re even.”

“Oh, just not friends then” she seemed a little dejected now.

“We can certainly be friends, I just wanted to point out how you saved our lives” Marian didn’t want to upset her, she could only imagine how hard it’d be to say to Merrill when she was crying.

“This really is a great day!  I’ve got my own house, and a friend!”

“You’ve really made it big now Merrill” Marian couldn’t help but smile at how excited she was.

“Are you going to come up here though or stay on the floor?”

“What?”

“Sleeping together?”

“I think you’re taking this friendship a little fast Merrill.”

“Oh no, I’m sorry, you just asked earlier and the floor is dirty isn’t it?”

“I’m joking Merrill, would it put your mind at ease if we shared the bed?”

“Well, no I suppose not, but you’d certainly be more comfortable” Merrill seemed confused by the expression.

“Then we share the bed I suppose” Marian got off the floor, she was much happier to not sleep on it.

Merrill must not know how bed sizes work because this was a fairly big one.  It could easily hold the two of them, the blanket might be a bit small maybe?

“You can get situated while I go change into my bed robes” Merrill took a bag out of the room with her.

“Hm, I should’ve brought bed robes” Marian had just removed the heavier parts of her armor and was going to sleep in the cloth parts.  “Whatever.”

She took the side against the wall so Merrill would be able to get on the bed easier.  Where ever Varric found this bed, Marian wanted one.  It was much more comfortable than what they had at Gamlen’s house.  The approaching footsteps indicated the return of Merrill.  As she climbed onto the bed Marian understood why she said it was small.

“Now Merrill, I know I’ve been making jokes of a, more inappropriate nature” Marian was currently being pushed into the wall.  “But you don’t need to start banging me into the wall about it.”

“Oh no” Merrill shifted her position to stop pushing Marian.  “Sorry I’m used to spreading out in my tent.”

“I could tell” Marian rolled over so she wouldn’t be pushed face first into the wall.  “But it is your bed so spread as you need.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, I insist” Marian could really only see her eyes in the dark now, they were rather bright.

“Ok, just make sure to be touching me as you fall asleep” Merrill spread back out, slightly more mindful of Marian, and put one of her arms on Marians shoulder.

“For the spell?”

“Yup!  For not being a mage you sure pick up the intricacies of magic quickly.”

“I think intricacies is a bit of stretch, I couldn’t care a rune to save my life I promise you that much.”

“Oh I’m sure you could” Merrill let out a yawn after saying this.

“Just ask Bethany, she’s seen me try” Marian yawned as well.  “But for now, I’ll see you in dreamland Merrill.”

Merrills response was just a light snore as she dozed off.  Marian was quick to follow her lead, falling asleep as well.  She opened her eyes and was back in Ferelden.  Lothering to be specific, before the Blight.  After a few moments a sharp pain hit her leg.

“What the hell” looking down she could see that she was caught in a bear trap.  “That’s not exactly a good sign.”

“That’s a way to put it” a voice from behind her spoke up, and with it the bear trap opened back up.  “Been a while since I’ve seen you, you certainly look bigger than I remember.”

“Who” Marian turned to face the speaker, seeing a bright ball of yellow light.  “Are you, the spirit?”

“Me?  No of course not.”

“Really.”

“Alright you caught me, I'm a spirit."


	5. Is it fortunate to be lucky or lucky to be fortunate?

“So, you live here?” Hawke wasn’t too sure where here was sure.

“Live is kind of a strong word all things considered, but sure” the yellow light just sort of projected these words somehow.

“And here is, inside of me?”

“Well, kind of, it’s more like.  Oh, how to put this.  You know what the Fade is right?”

“I’ll say sure.”

“Ok, so, all things, except dwarves, have just a tiny bit of the Fade inside them.  It’s why demons haunt dreams and mages exist.  Normally a non-mage, like you, wouldn’t have too much of the Fade in them.”

“But I have a lot of it in me?  Is it because you’re here?”

“No other way around.”

“You’re here because I have a lot of Fade in me?”

“Exactly.”

“And what are you exactly?  If you, even as a joke, say a demon I will attack you.”

“I’m a spirit of Luck, or maybe Fortune, their basically the same thing though.”

“First of all, Luck and Fortune are very different things, and secondly, why the hell are you here?”

“I saw some prime real estate to set up in, and did so” Luck said this in a matter of fact way.

“I am not real estate, but if I was I would be prime you are correct.”

“Look, I was summoned by a mage, that went sideways and I ended up in your hometown.  Mages aren’t exactly easy to hitch a ride, and non-mages aren’t usually available.  You were a happy middle ground for me.”

“Well consider your free ride over, pay some rent or get out” Hawke was not a shelter.

“I do pay my rent, it’s thanks to me you’re even still alive, or did you really think you were just that lucky?”

“Is it really luck though?  I’m more a fate leaner personally.”

“No it’s Luck, I promise.”

“Name one time you’ve saved me and I’ll consider keeping you around.”

“Let’s see, when you were ten and stepped in a bear trap that just so happened to be too broken to take your leg off.”

“Ok that’s-”

“At ten again when you threw a rock at a hornets nest and they all stung Carvar instead.  You not dying at Ostagar, and then again when a dragon just so happened to lean in your favor to save you.  Just name a time you avoided dying and I’ll say your welcome afterwards.”

  “You make, a very strong case I admit” had Hawke really almost died this many times.  “But I can’t exactly have a spirit living inside me forever.”

“Ok, take me back to the Fade and I’ll be on my way.”

“Aren’t we there right now?”

“No this is inside of you, I need the real Fade.”

“How exactly am I supposed to just bring you to the fade?”

“Beats me” Luck was a rather blunt spirit.

“Well, fine then” Hawke was pretending to be in control of this situation.  “You can stick around, but none of that, possession shit.  Well, ok if it’d be really funny I’ll let it slide, but only once.”

“Twice and we have a deal” alright maybe Luck wasn’t so bad after all.

“A hard bargain, but we have a deal” Hawke held out a hand.

“I can’t shake your hand, I don’t have a body.”

“Right” Hawke retracted the hand awkwardly. 

The two stood in silence for a few moments.  Hawke looked around the area they were in, it looked like a strange fusion of Gamlen’s house and their old home in Lothering.

“So, you going to be leaving soon or?” Luck seemed to not enjoy the company.

“Well, I’m sort of here thanks to a spell, wait, Merrill should be around here somewhere” Hawke had forgotten she’d said that.

“Merrill, oh the elf” Luck seemed to have a strange amount of knowledge about Hawkes life.

“Any chance you’ve seen her around?”

“I’ve been right here with you the whole time, so no.”

“Can you make me super lucky so I find her faster?”

“I hate that that’s how you think magic works.”

“It should be” Hawke decided to just go look for her.  “Nice meeting you, thanks for all the saves, catch you around.”

“Sure thing champ.”

Branching out from the meeting point only made this whole place much weirder.  The floor wound around into a corkscrew as Hawke walked along it, going up to some higher platform in this world.  After what felt like an hour of walking Hawke was at the top of the spire, it opened onto a familiar plain.  A scene they’d rather forget was playing out here.

“Carvar no please not you” Leandra was grieving over Carvars body.

Meanwhile Hawke Bethany and Aveline fought of the darkspawn horde, slaying the ogre and saving them all.  On cue Flemeth came in and saved them for real.  Hawke had seen this in their dreams all too often, the guilt ran deep.  At the end of the memory all that remained in the clearing was Hawke, the apparitions having left.

“I’m sorry” Merrill approached them from behind, apparently she’d been up here, perfect.

“I always could tell you were an Ogre in disguise” Hawke hid the sorrow before turning to face her.  “Let’s just leave my head, I already spoke to my spirit friend so everything all taken care of.”

“So, you know why you change now?” Merrill still had a sorrow in her eyes for Hawke but didn’t bring it back up.

“Would you believe I forgot to ask that?” it was only the whole reason they were here, nothing too important.  “Let’s go bother that spirit for some more information then.”

Hawke led Merrill back to the meeting area, the trip back down only felt like a few moments.  Luck was still there, Hawke supposed there wasn’t many other places to go.

“Well it sure has been a while, almost forgot you existed” for a spirit Luck was very good at sarcasm.

“I forgot to ask you about something rather important, do you make my body change?” Hawke wasn’t feeling too much in the mood for more quips right now.

“Change how?”

“Somedays I’m a man other days I’m a woman.”

“And that’s not normal for you?”

“No Luck humans don’t exactly do that.”

“Oh you’re a Luck spirit, the Keeper says you’re one of the rarest spirits” Merrill seemed very excited to meet Luck.

“Finally someone to appreciate me” Luck already seemed to like Merrill.

“Focus please, are you doing it or not” Hawke just wanted to leave before any other memories began playing.

“Nope, I’d say it’s all you given your form here.”

“My form here?” Hawke looked down at their hands, they were the same as always, right?  “Merrill do I look weird right now?”

“Well, a tad, I just didn’t think it’d be polite to mention.”

“What does a tad mean exactly?”

“Er, well, it’s like your both of you, just in one?  Sort of tall, sort of lean, big arms, your hairs the same though nothing weird there.”

“I’m, a mixture of Garrett and Marian?” this was getting to the too much for Hawke zone.

“Oh that’s a perfect way to put it yes.”

“Why do I look like this?”

“Isn’t it who you are?” Luck seemed confused by the question.

“No, I’m either or, not both, you can’t just be both.”

“Well, you could be neither right?”

“What does that mean, in non-spirit terms please?”

“Would you call me either or?” Luck was getting further into that zone now.

“You’re a ball of light, no I wouldn’t.”

“Then you could be like me.”

“I’m not a spirit, it doesn’t work that way.”

“Well, it sure looks like it does.  Oh I think I get it now, you’re real body is trying to reconcile with this you but can’t, so it changes.”

“How the hell does that make any sense?” Hawke was very deep in the too much zone.  “What the hell am I?”

“Hawke?” Lucks tone didn’t make this feel like a question.

“But, I can’t just, this makes no sense” Hawke was now nearing full on mental breakdown zone.  “How could any of this make any sense?”

“Well, we’re inside your head, maybe we can find out more from your memories?” Merrill tried to be helpful, but she wasn’t sure how to deal with this situation.

“I think that’s the worst plan, probing around in my head cannot end well” Hawke didn’t want any more dark memories brought to light.

“Well, it’s that or suffer the burden of never understanding” back to blunt Luck huh.

“Oh look over there!” Merrill pointed to a younger Hawke running off inside a building.

“If” Hawke took a deep breathe.  “If we go in there, promise me you’ll tell no one about anything we might see?”

“Of course” Merrill gave them a reassuring pat on the back.

“Then let’s go down the Hawke-hole” the two went off after young Hawke.

The path led them inside the Hawke residence in Lothering.  Sitting at the table was Malcom, young Hawke was going over to him. 

“I’m sick of all the boys in Lothering” Hawke abruptly got Malcom’s attention by plopping into a seat next to him and saying this.

“All of Lothering now?” Malcom put down the quill he was writing with.  “You’re moving up from just the neighbors.”

“They won’t let me do anything!  It’s always ‘Marians a prissy princess she can’t play knights with us.’  I hate them!”

“Well that’s certainly not very nice of them, want me have words with them sweetie?”

“No I already threw rocks at them.”

“Did you aim for the hands like I told you to?”

“Yeah and I missed, your advice is awful dad!”

“The hands?” Merrill quietly whispered to Hawke.

“He didn’t want me to actually hurt the other kids so he lied to me and said that was the best place to aim” Hawke couldn’t look away from the scene, it’d been so long since they saw Malcom.

“Or it’s just your aim, have you practiced like I told you to?”

“I did!  Hands aren’t as big as trees though!”

“Now it just sounds like you’re making excuses.  How are you going to keep the twins safe if you can’t even hit hands with rocks?”

“I’ll hit them with swords!” young Marian started making swinging motions with the quill.

“You think swinging a sword is easier than throwing rocks?  Have you swung a sword little miss?”

“No…”

“Really?”

“I might have played with the family old sword when you and mom were out but it was only for a bit I swear!”

“I knew I didn’t put it back upside down, your mother was about to explode before I covered for you.”

“I’m sorry” young Marian pouted at him.

“Oh enough of that, I’m not mad you took the sword.”

“Really?” she cheered up quite fast.

“I’m mad you could have gotten hurt and both your mother and I were away!”

“Oh” young Marian had just been played.

“Next time you want to play with the sword make sure I’m home alright, someone has to keep our young warrior safe” Malcom ruffled her hair.  “Now go practice that aim of yours!”

“Fine but you have to promise to give me sword lessons if it hit the hands” she gave him a demanding look.

“Alright I promise” he smiled at her as she ran outside.

“Did you ever hit the hands?” Merrill turned to Hawke, enthralled by the memory.

“I did, technically, he said it was cheating to hold the person down first” Hawke was still smiling, this memory was a good one, even if it was one they’d forgotten.

“It is cheating, you have to throw it” the two froze as Malcom turned to face them.  “My you’ve grown up, don’t be a stranger introduce me to your friend!”

“Is this part of your spell?” Hawke threw Merrill a quick glance.

“Not even slightly” Merrill was on edge now.

“Oh come on, I’m not a demon.  Admittedly that’s exactly what a demon would say yes, but I used my magic to leave this me behind for you.  In case you ever needed some more advice from dear old dad.”

“Is that possible Merrill?”

“I, suppose so?  I’ve heard of crazier spells.”

“Alright I’m trusting this, mostly because I miss my father dearly, but I do need some advice” Hawke went over to the table and sat down across from him.  “Also this is Merrill, she’s Dalish.”

“Hello there Merrill who is Dalish, feel free to have a seat as well” Malcom waved to her from his seat.  “Now then, what’s wrong?”

“Me is what’s wrong, look at me!  I’m some kind of combination of Garrett and Marian!”

“Well, to be fair Garrett and Marian are just pieces of you, this is you you.”

“See, that makes no sense, how do you even know that?” Hawke was back in the zone.

“Now don’t get mad, but I am sort of the one who did that.”

“YOU DID WHAT?”

“See I asked you not get mad to avoid the yelling specifically.”

“YOU DID WHAT?”

“When you were born, you sort of were like this, just as a baby” Malcom gestured to them.  “Your mother and I thought it could cause some issues, so I crafted a spell to prevent that.  The spell was only supposed to make you Marian though.”

“Wait, what?” the anger was now mostly confusion.  “I was born, like this?”

“Yeah, as a baby you started to grow and resembled both a boy and a girl.  No idea why that is to be honest.”

“And the spell was supposed to just stop that?”

“Yup.”

“But why do I switch then?  Shouldn’t I just be Marian?”

“Beats me.”

“What?”

“I died before the spell started acting weird I guess, no idea what’s going on now.”

“Oh right, that makes sense yeah.”

“If I had to guess, I’d say it just sort of broke down with time.  One day it might stop all together even.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, when would that be?”

“Again, I’m sort of dead kiddo, I have no clue.”

“That’s just great.”

“Um, Mr. Hawke” Merrill decided to speak up.  “How did you do that?  This spell sounds incredibly powerful and you don’t look like a particularly powerful mage.”

“Well first off I am, and secondly, and keep this on the down low for me, a little bit of blood magic.”

“WHAT.”

“I had to make sure it’d last for a while.”

“MY FATHER IS A BLOOD MAGE?”

“Well, only twice but sort of.”

“WHAT’S THE OTHER TIME?”

“Ah don’t worry about it, it’ll never come up, probably”

“Fine.  So you used blood magic on me, your child.”

“When you say it like that it sounds really bad.”

“IT IS.”

“I know I know, but people are cruel to things they don’t understand, and we wanted you to be safe.”

“BLOOD, no offense Merrill, MAGIC.”

“Oh so she can be a blood mage but I can’t be?

“NOT WHEN YOU USE BLOOD MAGIC ON ME.”

“I DIDN’T EXACTLY HAVE LYRIUM TO SPARE.”

“THEN JUST DON’T DO THE MAGIC, HOW HARD IS IT TO NOT DO THE MAGIC?”

“IT WASN’T JUST A ME DECISION ALRIGHT, YOUR MOTHER INSISTED ON IT TOO.”

“WELL WHEN I GET BACK I’LL YELL AT HER TOO, SHE CAN’T HATE ME ANYMORE THAN SHE ALREADY DOES.”

“WHAT?”

“IT’S A LONG STORY.”

“Not too sound rude, but do you both need to be yelling” Merrill was covering her ears now.

“YES” the two turned to yell this at her together.

“Oh, sorry then.”

“Yes I admit, it was probably a really bad decision that we made at the time, but that’s why I did this so I could at least apologize for it.”

“Apology declined put those hands up” Hawke reached over the table to grab Malcom by the shirt.

“Is this for never showing you how to swing a sword?”

“Among other things yes” Hawke pulled him over the table and threw him to the floor.

“Now before you beat your dear old dad to a bloody pulp; I need to know why this dwarf I’ve been seeing in your newer memories has a shirt cut that low.”

“He says it’s dwarf fashion, but I refuse to believe that” Hawke could fulfill that request, it was a hot topic.

“Thank you, beat away!”

“I think I’d rather wait outside with Luck” Merrill walked out of the memory house as the sound of fist hitting flesh started.

“I see that family reunion is going well” Luck was still floating in the meeting area.

“I think well is a bit of a stretch” this was punctuated by the loud snapping of a bone and a scream of pain.

“I’m aware.”

“Oh.  Sarcasm, right Varric mentioned that.”

“Oh speaking of him, that shirt he wears, why?”

“He says it’s all the rage in Orzhammer fashion.”

“Isn’t he a surface dwarf?”

“Well, I suppose he is?”

“Then how does he know that?”

“Maybe there’s a catalogue?”

“I don’t know enough about your material world to dispute if that makes sense or not, so I guess it’s that.”

“Oh I love being helpful!”

“PLEASE HELP ME” Malcom was somehow still alive in there.

“Do you think Hawke would be made if I woke us up to break that up?” Merrill was starting to feel pity for him.

“Oh certainly they will be, but I’d prefer there be less screams of agony so please do.”

“Nice chatting with you then” Merrill began focusing to end the spell.

“A pleasure.”

“AH” Hawke sat upright with a shout, scaring the hell out of Merrill.

“AH” Merrill now also woke up with a scream, mostly frightened by Hawke.

“Oh dammit, Merrill I was just beating him to death with his own arms did you have to wake us up?” slowly throughout the sentence Marians voice shifted into Garrett’s as Hawke changed.

“Blood mages have to stick together I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, I suppose it wasn’t very constructive to do that anyways” Garrett got up out of the bed.  “Thank you for the help Merrill.”

“Of course, I can’t believe you have a Luck spirit inside you!” she sounded very excited about this.

“I’ll put in a good word for you if Luck ever starts talking about moving out.”

“Really!   That’s so nice of you!”

Garrett didn’t have the heart to tell her it was a joke.  He gathered up the few things he’d brought along here and headed back to Gamlen’s now that that mystery was taken care of.


	6. Favors for favors for mages and elves.

“Look what the cat dragged in” Gamlen was for some reason the only one in the house when Garrett came back.  “You lucked out not being here last night.”

“I think I’d rather have dealt with whatever fight went down here than” Garrett had had quite the night.  “I’ll have to have words with my mother whenever she comes back.”

“I’ll wish you luck with that, but you should maybe look for Bethany first.  She headed to Darktown and that’s not really safe.”

“Careful Uncle, I might think you actually care about us if you keep this up.”

“Perish the thought” Gamlen gave him a smile before leaving to do his own business.

“We’re certainly going to be off to a good start today” Garrett set about preparing something to eat and getting changed, it was going to be a long day.

Getting to Darktown from Lowtown was a bit of a hike, luckily there wasn’t much traffic on the way.  Once he was there the next problem was all too obvious, how the hell he was going to find Bethany here.  After some wandering and asking around some rather aggressive people if they’d seen her, Garrett didn’t think this was going to work.

“Of all the towns to run off in, did it have to be the one called Darktown” this wasn’t the best part of Kirkwall to be traipsing along through.

“Be strong dear, we’re almost to the healer” an older man was helping a child with a mangled leg move along.

“It hurts so much pa” Garrett averted his gaze, that leg wasn’t going to make it.

He went over his options.  The first was to just sit tight and hope she’d cross his path, not too likely of an option.  The second was to keep wandering around, it was a offered a slightly better chance than sitting tight.  Lastly, he could just go back to Lowtown and hope she’d come back on her own, probably the worst of the plans.

“Oi mister” oh great, now some children were accosting him.  “Spare some money?”

“Not really kid” Garrett wasn’t actually carrying any money on him.

“What if I point this shiv at ya?” the kid did in fact pull out a shiv,

“That doesn’t make money appear in my pockets no” Garrett pat his empty pockets.

“Drat, let’s roll lads” what a polite child mugger. 

“Well, at least the kids are doing well down here” it certainly could have gone worse.

“See, I told you the healer could help” Garrett’s natural curiosity caused him to look over at the man’s voice.

“It’s as good as new pa” that child was now walking on a very much not mangled leg, that wasn’t normal.

“I’m sorry, um sir” Garrett approached the two and switched to a hush tone.  “I’m sort of looking for a mage currently any chance that healer is one?”

“Who are you to be asking about that huh” oh of course he was going to be like this.

“I can assure you, I’m no Templar, and if it’s who I think it is, we’re also family” Garrett was trying to speak in his most reassuring tone.

“Family?  Really?  You don’t much look alike.”

“You’d be surprised how often I hear that.”

“Well, if I find out you lied to me and get that healer sent to the Gallows I’ll send the whole of Darktown your way.”

“Pa come on, be nice” thank you child, what is it with the children down here.  “The clinics over that way, look for the lantern.”

“Thank you, try and keep that leg in one piece” Garrett gave the two a kind smile and headed off.

Either Darktown wasn’t that big, possible, or he was just resting very close to this clinic.  It only took him a few moments to see the lantern.  He pushed inside through the door, quickly scanning around for Bethany.  It didn’t take long for his eyes to see a blond man casting a healing spell, that certainly wasn’t Bethany.  The man finished his spell and then turned to Garrett, quickly pulling out a staff.

“I have made this place a sanctum of healing and salvation” he held up a hand at Garrett.  “Why do you threaten it?”

“Do, do you greet everyone like that?” Garrett looked around him, just to make sure he wasn’t surrounded by Templars all of a sudden.

“Just the dangerous ones.”

“Why am I dangerous?”

“Well, you’ve, uh, got a sword.”

“So?  You can shoot fireballs out of your eyes.”

“No I can’t” his stance shifted from a defensive one to more of a neutral one.  “Why would you say that?”

“It’s what my sister’s always said to win fights, and now I know she’s a liar” Garrett wasn’t going to let her pull that one again.

“Your sister?”

“Yes, she’s about, this tall, black hair, also an m-word” Garrett held a hand out to her approximate height.  “Seen her by any chance?”

“No?  Did you come here looking for her?”

“Yup” Garrett was a little annoyed about this apparent waste of time.

“Are you a mage?”

“Me?” Garrett now was the confused one.  “Do you see this sword?”

“Right, you just, felt odd when you came in, sorry for the aggression” the man put down the staff and relaxed his posture.  “I’m Anders, I run this clinic.”

“Pleasure, I’m Hawke, Garrett specifically but most people just call me Hawke” Garrett reached out a hand to him.

“Pleasure” Anders accepted the shake.

“Well, not to bust in, introduce, and then run, but I’ve got a sister to find” Garrett turned for the door.  “Take care and worry not, all secrets are safe with me.”

“Wait, I can help you find your sister if you’d like?” Anders grabbed him by the arm to stop the exit. 

“I’d appreciate it, but you’ve clearly got plenty of work on your hands so don’t worry about it.”

“Call it a favor for favor, in exchange for you keeping my secret?”

“Alright, but I don’t want to be taking up too much of your time” Garrett relented, this guy sure was persistent.

“Perfect, I don’t actually have any patients in need of attention currently” Anders grabbed his staff and came to the door with Garrett.

“So, how can you help exactly?”

“Two sets of eyes are better than one right?”

“Oh, yeah right, I just thought you had a bit of magic for this.”

“Well yeah I do, I just need to use my eyes for it” Anders channeled some magic and his eyes glowed briefly. 

“Oh, well that’s a neat trick” Garrett wished he wandered in here earlier.

“It looks like she’s over there” Anders pointed in what seemed like a random direction.  “Rather far away though.”

“Well, I can probably handle it from here then.”

“I’ll come with in case she starts moving around” maybe Anders just didn’t have a lot of friends.

“Right.”

After a mostly silent walk, broken by the occasional “Turn there”, the two could see Bethany.  She was fiddling with some trap door? 

“Bethany what in the Makers name are you doing, and why are you doing it alone” Garrett immediately b-lined over to her to begin chewing her out.  “Running off to Darktown, alone, not even telling anyone but making me come here off Gamlens best guess.  To now break and enter?  Have you lost your entire mind?”

“First of all, I wasn’t the one who had a fun little sleepover was I?” Bethany was more than prepared to chew back with her attitude.  “Not only did I have to deal with the normal Gamlen fighting, I also had mother giving me the stink eye the entire time.  So I said to hell with it, I’m breaking it our grandparents now slaver owned estate and taking that will.”

“Now Bethany” Garrett rubbed his temples, preparing for the headache understanding all this would be.  “Why is this your to hell with it plan exactly?  Getting a multiple decade old will?”

“Because it matters to mother” she turned back to fiddling with the door. 

“Really, after all her recent love you’re doing it for mother?”

“And, it matters to me, I think.”

“Why does it matter to you?  Hoping our grandfather left you in particular some nice trinket?”

“Because I’ve had to put up with living in Gamlen’s house, trapped there mind you, dealing with our drunkard uncle constantly.  I want to know if he’s lying about the will or not.”

“Again, why does that matter?” Garrett couldn’t see how any kind of will based lies was going to help them acquire money right now.

“It just does!” she stomped her foot and banged her fist into the door.  “Or it would, if I could get this blasted door open.”

“Aren’t you a mage?” Anders decided now was an appropriate time to join this sibling argument.  “I’m Anders by the way, friend of your brother.”

“Yes I am a mage, but it’s not very sneaky if I blow a hole in this wall is it?” she gives him a sort of demeaning look when replying.

“Do you not know how to magically open locks?”

“There’s a spell for that?”

“I’m vetoing you learning any spell that lets you commit crimes magically” Garrett didn’t want that headache.  “I’ll just go get Varric and we can ask him to pick it.”

“Really?” Bethany seemed surprised by this line of action.

“Yes fuck it, we can break in and kill some slavers if it makes you feel better about our living situation.”

“You are my favorite brother.”

“That’s in extremely poor taste Bethany” Garrett cracks a small smile regardless.  “Sorry for all this family squabble Anders, thank you again for the help though.”

“Oh of course, but not to sound too in need of help myself” Anders had the look on his face of someone about to ask for some really stupid request.  “Could you maybe spare some time tonight and help me break a friend out of the Gallows?”

“Of course” Bethany replied before Garrett could even sigh.  “Mages need to stick together after all.”

“Ok, how about this” Garrett wanted to do not that at all.  “I’ll meet you there after I get Varric as long as nothing goes to hell in the mean time?”

“Perfect, Karl is going to be waiting in the Chantry so we can all meet in Hightown at midnight” Anders looked far too excited.

“Great, navigating Kirkwall at night, what could be better” Garrett hated being nice.  “Wait for us by the chanter’s board.”

“Roger that!” again, way too excited Anders.

Garrett went with Bethany to Lowtown, sneaking past any would be trouble along the way.  Finally reaching the Hanged Man Varric was already outside speaking to another dwarf.  Upon seeing them he gestured them over enthusiastically.

“These here are just the two I was talking about Anso” Varric had his businessman voice on.  “Capable and efficient, and best of all trustworthy.”

“Oh perfect!” Anso turned to them.  “Sorry to ask about work on a first introduction, but your friend Varric here has been telling me you could help with a small problem I’ve got?”

“How small exactly?” Garrett did have a slight time restraint right now.  “And where might it be?”

“Oh just some issues with a shipment of supplies, the guys seemed to have taken it to a safe house in the alienage” Anso didn’t seem concerned by that somehow.  “I think it’s just a small misunderstanding, I just need you go over and ask them to return it.”

“Why hire us if it’s that easy?” Bethany had a good point.

“I’m not really used to the surface” he threw a fearful glance skyward.  “Rather I’m afraid I might fall up there, and well if it’s not a misunderstanding having hired muscle can’t be bad.”

“Hired is my second favorite word, and we were going there anyways so it all works out” Garrett loved coincidences.

“We are?” Bethany didn’t seem to know that.

“Yes to pick up some more muscle for our other job” Garrett tried to be sly about bringing up Merrill since she was an illegal Dalish bloodmage.

“We have muscle in the alienage?”

“Yes, remember?  Our new friend, very strong, very nice?”

“Aveline doesn’t live down there does she?”

“No, she doesn’t” Garrett couldn’t believe she didn’t catch onto his hints.  “You know, she’s bloody good at what she does?”

“We know a reaver?”

“Oh those guys are the best!” Anso now interjects.  “I knew Varric was right telling me to hire you guys if you have a reaver on your side.”

“Yup that’s us” Garrett made a note to look into becoming a reaver for future jobs.  “Many friends of many vocations, let’s not dawdle though.”

“We’ll have your shipment back in no time” Bethany at least knew how to use a good voice for the customer.

The two headed towards the alienage, Varric stayed behind since he wasn’t asked to come along.

“Didn’t we come here to get him?” Bethany was very certain it was the whole point of their Lowtown trip.

“Yes we did, but we got a job, not Varric, so we don’t want our pay split an extra way correct?” Garrett was still peeved about the reaver thing.

“Oh right, that makes sense yeah, and we can always get him before heading to the Chantry.”

“My thoughts exactly” Garrett went and knocked on Merrills door first, wanting her for the shipment recovery.

“Oh one moment” Merrill called out from deep inside the house, followed by the clattering of things.

“Oh, Merrill is our friend down here right” Bethany just now caught on to that.  “Oh and the bloody good, cause she’s a, I see what you did back there.”

“Really, you do?” better late than never Garrett supposed.

“Oh Hawke!” Merrill opened up the door, looking a bit disheveled.  “I didn’t know you’d be back tonight!”

“I actually came to ask if you wanted to help us with some jobs?” Garrett was thinking of how to make this more appealing.  “You know, a chance to see the rest of the city in good company, and with less guards out for the night.”

“Oh sounds like fun!  Maybe I can see a mugging up close.”

“Up close?”

“Yes” she dipped back inside to grab her staff.  “I saw one from my window earlier, it was so exciting!”

“A mugging was exciting?” Bethany would likely never understand her.

“Very much so!” Merrill barreled out her door, slamming it behind her.  “Where to!”

“I think over there?” Garrett pointed at the house that looked the least run down here. 

“Oh, I haven’t met any of my neighbors yet, should I bring a gift?”

“Maybe not for these ones” Bethany had her staff ready as the advanced on the house.

“Hello?” Garrett knocked on the door, waiting for a reply.  “We’re here for Anso, looking for a shipment of his?”

The three waited in silence for a few moments, there wasn’t even the sounds of people moving around inside.  Garrett turned to Bethany and exchanged a nod with her.

“Keep behind me Merrill” Bethany got ready to head in after Garrett.

Garrett kicked in the door and dashed in side sword drawn.  Bethany and Merrill followed him in a moment later, of course none of them expected the empty room.  There was one other door in here, on the side wall.  Garrett put his ear against it, again there wasn’t any sound.  Gesturing for the other two to stand back he slowly pushed the door open.  With the snap of a wire he dove away, luckily in time to not get blown away from the trap on the door.  As if that wasn’t enough coming in the front were armed guards.

“Grab the elf kill the other two” the apparent leader of them yelled this before charging Garrett.

“Ha, good luck with that” Garrett chuckled as Merrill blasted him into the wall with a stone shot.

The other two guards rushed Bethany, paying no mind to her staff or the spell she was preparing.  Once they were nearly on her, Bethany dragged the end of the staff across the floor in front of her in a semi-circle.  This caused large spikes of ice to erupt forward into the two, giving them a rather gruesome end.

“Well now all of them are dead so we can’t question any of them” Garrett had checked the leader but that stone left a very big dent in his head. 

“Check for the supplies?” Bethany just kind of shrugged as her ice melted, dropping the two impaled corpses.

Garrett returned the shrug before going into the side room, there was a large chest in there.  Smashing the lock open with his boot Garrett flung the lid open.  To a fat nothing, it was empty.

“Oh when I find either that dwarf or whoever has these supplies” Garrett could already tell this was going to be rather difficult.

“Back to the Hanged Man then?” Bethany was offering very helpful suggestions right now.

“Oh Varrics place?” Merrill somehow didn’t know it was a bar?

“Yes his place” Garrett didn’t have the heart to tell her otherwise.

All of them left the empty house and went back into the alienage clearing.  As they reached the steps even more of those guards showed up.  A woman stepped forward from the group.

“These aren’t the elf, who the hell are they?” she looked to one of her men confused and angry.

“Doesn’t matter, we were told kill whoever leaves the house” he drew his sword, causing the others to do so as well.

“Now hold on” Garrett wasn’t really in the mood to do this.  “We can all talk this over like reasonable adults as some bamboozling has occurred clearly.”

“Why were you in the house then?” the woman seemed on a very short fuse.

“We got hired by a dwarf to get back his supplies, but it seems like he lied to us” Garrett was mostly hoping to buy time for either of the two mages to handle the bulk of them.

“Anso” she narrows her eyes at him.  “Kill them all.”

“Mages, now would be a wonderful time to help out” Garrett drew his own sword.

“On it” Bethany slammed her staff down and a huge ball of fire exploded on the left group.

“Like this Hawke?” Merrill asked this as she blasted a bolt of lightning through another group of them.

“Perfect” Garrett rushed into the now disoriented enemies.

With a wide swing he quickly cut down two of them.  The rest regrouped and swarmed him, ten on one wasn’t great odds for Garrett.  Luckily, for magically enhanced Garrett they were very good, Bethany was quite good at battle aid.  In a quick motion her parried four of their attacks, knocking the men back from the sheer force of it.  Pushing his advantage he thrust his blade right through ones breast plate, taking that man’s sword and shield temporarily.  A quick shield bash caught another one mid swing, throwing him to the ground with a loud snap.  One of the men tried to run for it, he didn’t get too far before the borrowed sword ended up thrown into his back.  With just a shield now Garrett fell back to the defensive, that magical strength beginning to fade.  Luckily the remaining few were very demoralized by that feat of battle prowess, allowing him to easily batter them aside.

“Not too bad for a nights work I guess” Garrett was focusing on catching his breath and getting his sword out of a corpse.

“You’re welcome” Bethany looked a bit worn out from the spell casting.

“Are all night always so hectic?” Merrill didn’t look to worse for wear, she did only need to cast two spells to be fair.

“Only when we’re trying to get paid” with a final heave Garrett freed his sword.  “Let’s go find Anso!”

The three went to the steps, only for another armored man to arrive.

“I don’t know who you are friend” this was never a good start to a sentence for Garrett.  “But you made a serious mistake coming here.  Lieutenant I want everyone in the clearing now!”

“Captin” a very bloody looking man fell down the stairs.

“Your men are dead” a white haired elf followed the dead man down the stair, sauntering in the clearing.  “I suggest running while you still can.”

“You’re going nowhere, slave” the captain grabbed this new elf by the shoulder.

Without a word the white haired elf turned, his body glowing a pale white, and punched his fist through the man’s chest.  This was by far, the coolest thing Garrett had seen in quite some time.

“I am no slave” the elf threw the corpse to the ground before turning to the three of them.  “Sorry about the deception, but I required assistance in dealing with these men.  I am Fenris.”

“Well, have you considered asking people for help?” Bethany was clearly none too pleased with being used as bait.  “We help people all the time.”

“You’d help an escaped slave fend off his Tevinter magistrate slaver?”

“Well, if you asked nicely enough sure.”

“Bethany’s kindness aside, Anso did say he’d pay us and we’re a little strapped on money right now so” Garrett was glad Bethany had a good heart, but they’re so poor right now.  “Any chance there’s still some coin in this?”

“I can offer some, I’ve been working as a mercenary when I can” Fenris dug out some gold coins and threw them to Garrett.

“Right, let’s go kill this magister then, preferably before midnight we do have another job then” Garrett pocketed them, they were making some nice progress on that fifty.

“Not to look a gift horse in the mouth” Fernis’s tone sounded like he’d being just that.  “Are those two mages?”

“Yup” Bethany grabbed Merrill by the shoulder and gave a quick smile.

“I don’t, particularly trust mages, like at all.  Truthfully I kind of hate them.”

“Well” Bethany turned the smile upside down.

“Look, want our help or not?” Garrett didn’t care.  “Cause I’d rather not do a me and you versus a whole army hired by a tevinter magister right now.”

“A good point, I’ll just keep my distance” he gave the two of them a wide berth as they four took off.  “From his orders to these men he seems to be holed up in Hightown.”

“Ah, perfect, we have to be there later anyways” this was delightfully convenient for Garrett.

The group, now with a white haired occasionally glowing elf, made a pit stop at the Hanged Man.  It didn’t take terribly long to find Varric, he was the only dwarf there.

“Varric, buddy, care to help us out with some, well” Garrett realized most of what they’d be doing tonight was not legal.  “Activities?”

“You know I love activities Hawke” Varric quickly finished his drink and followed Garrett outside.  “Who’s he?”

“Fenris Varric, Varric Fenris, we’re helping him real fast then helping this other guy, then we need to break in somewhere” once they weren’t in a crowded bar Garrett felt better discussing his plans.

“Perfect, I didn’t want to have a boring night today” Varric had a glint in his eye.

Now with Varric also in tow, the group actually headed to Hightown.  Most of the late night muggers gave them a wide berth, due to Fenris’s rather frightening demeanor.  He brought them to a rather decrypt looking mansion.

“This is the place?” Bethany didn’t seem to sure.

“Oh it looks like my house!” Merrill pointed at a broken window.

“According to the man I killed early, yes?” Fenris didn’t seem too sure about this.

“Did they have any written orders on them?” Garrett didn’t want to break and enter into the wrong house.

“They did.”

“What did those say?”

“I, well, I can’t read, so I didn’t take them.”

“Fuck it, we’ve got an hour or so, trial and error it is” Garrett marched over to the front door and knocked on it.  “Hello, any tevinter mages in here?”

They all waited in silence for a few moments, Garrett gave it a few more.  At the end of his patience he kicked the door in.  The foyer was empty, but much cleaner than the house’s outside.

“Brother!” Bethany could not believe him.

“What, we have a tight schedule ok” Garrett didn’t really care.

“This is the place, that’s his crest” Fenris pointed to some of the barrels.

“See, I was right” Garrett went inside the house, sword drawn.

“Oh I can already tell tonight is going to be a good story” Varric sounded like a child in a candy shop.

“I feel, spirits in there Hawke” Merrill’s tone on the word spirit couldn’t be a good sign.

“He no doubt prepared traps incase those men failed, tread carefully” Fernis also drew his sword.

“My middle name is Tread Carefully” Garrett opened the next door, and then instantly closed it.  “There’s a rage demon on the other side of this door.”

Said door was then smashed down by said demon.  Garrett managed to back pedal out of the way in time to avoid being smashed as well.  With a roar the demon surged into the room, swinging wildly at Garrett and Fenris.

“Stay low!” Varric was doing his best to fire shoots into the demon without hitting either of them.

“No go high!” Bethany sent a wave of rolling ice along the ground at the demon.

“Go high” Garret ducked under a bolt and positioned his sword for Fenris.

With a grunt of exertion Fenris jumped and kicked off the sword, throwing them both to either side of the room.  The ice wave hit the demon and froze its bottom in place.  Getting back to their feet Garrett and Fernis wasted no time hacking the demon apart now that it was immobilized.

“This is why I don’t trust mages” Fenris shot Bethany a glare.

“It wouldn’t have hurt you sheesh” Bethany rolled her eyes at him.

“Let’s try and keep the friendly fire to a minimum sister” Garrett liked to keep his feet not frozen.  “Any more spirits in here Merrill?”

“I feel one more large presence deeper inside” Merrill seemed a little unsettled now.

“Ok, Bethany keep your spells down, Merrill focus on whatever that big thing is when we see it” Garrett hoped she’d be able to just blood magic it away.  “And Varric, you’re doing great, thank you for not shooting us.”

“Any time Hawke.’

They entered the next room, it had two staircases going up to a second floor landing.  Hawke took the left and motioned for Fernis to take the right, Varric went with Fernis and the two mages with Garrett.  Reaching the next floor Garrett went to the middle door, it seemed to go to the most important room.  Garrett tried the door, lucky for him it was open.  Pushing it opened revealed a, strange creature.  The creature snarled at him and pointed both its hands at him.

“GET DO-” Garrett warned the others as he was thrown back through the banister to the first floor.

“That’s it!” Merrill confirmed his suspicions about what had just thrown Garrett.

With a growl Fenris rushed into the room, his marking glowing brightly.  The creature attempted its same spell on him, instead of throwing him like it had Garrett it only pushed him back slightly.  With a quick step forwards Fernis swung at it, cutting through its body harmlessly.  The creature vanished with a pop.

“It’s still here don’t let your guard down!” Merrill was channeling a spell as she searched for it.

“Found it” Garrett groaned this out as the creature appeared down before him.

“Away from him!” Bethany shouted at it as she blasted it with her arcane shots, having minimal effect on it.

Thankfully for Garrett this got the creatures attention, it raised a hand towards Bethany preparing another attack.  It was interrupted by a bolt piercing its arm.

“Ha, I knew these silver bolts were good for something” Varric smirked down at it as he loosed a volley of bolts at it.

The creature screamed in pain, its body trying to phase out again.  This was prevented by a red aura that surrounded its frame, locking it in place.

“Let it have it!” Merrill, knife in hand had sealed this monsters fate.

“Can do Dasiy” Varric finished the thing off with his bolts.

As the silver bolts pierced its flesh it screamed again.  Finally as its volume reached glass shattering heights its body burst, dropping the bolts to the floor.

“Wonderful job guys, can someone heal me now” Garrett was slowly getting to his feet, his body in fairly rough shape.

“DAMMIT” a loud crash came from the room as Fenris yelled.  “HE’S NOT HERE.”

“I’ll wait outside with Daisy” Varric clearly didn’t want to deal with that.

“Me too” Bethany gave Garrett the quickest wound healing spell she had before ditching the mansion.

“Great, the angry elf is on me then” Garrett, still very sore climbed back up the stairs.

“All this work, for nothing” Fenris was just breaking whatever caught his eye in the room.

“Look on the bright side” Garrett leaned against a wall for support.  “You didn’t get blasted by that thing.”

“A rather dull bright side don’t you think” Fenris’s demeanor seemed to shift slightly now that Garrett was here.  “Danarius will be back for me, he always comes.”

“Well, let’s see him try huh?  He had all the time in the world to set up this trap and the five of us breezed by it.”

“I’ll admit, having help is nice” the edge is his voice seemed to have faded a bit.  “And, I’m sure having help from mages isn’t something he’d plan for.  I’ll have to thank those two, regrettably.”

“Oh come now, they don’t bite I promise” Garrett was glad this was much easier than expected.  “But we do have to keep moving, much more work to do, feel free to find us in Lowtown if you need more help.”

“Actually, mind if I tag along to let off some steam?”

“Oh perfect, we are going to be killing some slavers later tonight if that helps?”

“Say no more, let’s not waste time” Fenris sheathed his sword and was ready to go.

“We do have some mages to help first though, just a heads up.”

“Of course, always more mages” Fenris sighed a little but still left with Garrett.


	7. No Fenris we are not on the Templars side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the looooong delay, graduated college and started work so I've been a little busy!

“Hawke over here” Anders called out from his, rather bad, hiding spot.  “Wow you brought quite a few people along.”

 

“I’m in fact the most popular Ferelden immigrant, Varric is the dwarf, Merril is the elven mage, and Fenris has a sword” Garrett wanted to expedite this super illegal act.  “Everyone this is Anders we’re here to rescue a guy named Karl, let’s get to it!”

 

“Not that I don’t love the enthusiasm” Anders sounded like he was about to make a complaint.  “But we sort of shouldn’t march a group this big in there.”

 

“What, it’s only six people, five if we stack Varric on someone’s shoulders.”

 

“Not in your lifetime Hawke” Varric had to be a buzzkill tonight of all nights.

 

“That is a rather large number of people to secretly break into the Chantry and then sneak out.  I just think four is a better number for this.”

 

“Four isn’t that many less than six, so no we’re all going in” Garrett didn’t trust any of these people to be left alone during this mission.

 

“Fine.”

 

“I’d like it to be known” Fenris sounded like he was about to say something rather anti-mages right now.  “I disagree with this course of action and also I just don’t like him.”

 

“Him being Anders?”

 

“Yes him.”

 

“We just met!  How can you already not like me?”

 

“Easily, first of all you’re a mage, no offense to you two who helped earlier I just have a history with mages.  Secondly we’re breaking out another mage for you, who I can already say I don’t like.”

 

“I think he should stay behind” Anders was well within his right to request that.

 

“I get where you’re coming from Anders I do” Garret could admit Fenris was a little bit against mages.  “But Fenris has a sword and these are Templars, historically Templars are very good at killing mages.”

 

“And what if he stabs me instead?”

 

“Then I’ll give him a stern talking to while Bethany heals you.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Look, I’d rather have more than me with a sword and Aveline is asleep so it’s Fernis or it’s Templar related death.”

 

“You heard the man, let’s just get this over with” Fenris started up the stairs to the Chantry.

 

“You know, this went better than I’d have thought” Merrill apparently had little faith in Garretts negotiating skills.

 

“If he stabs me I’ll be very mad with you brother” Bethany had incredibly low faith in him.

 

“Why would he stab you, he clearly said you and Merrill were not all mages earlier.”

 

“True he did say that.”

 

“Enough chit-chat” Garrett headed for the stairs.  “Let’s start our crime spree.”

 

“Aren’t crimes wrong?”

 

“Yes Merrill they are usually wrong.”

 

“Then why are we-”

 

“For a good cause” this current crime was an ok cause, the next one wasn’t going to be.

 

“Oh, alright then” Merrills moral compass was clearly on a downward spiral but Garrett had other current issues.

 

They all gathered at the Chantry door, Fenris waited there for them.  Once they all were together, and Fenris was at least ten feet away from Anders, they went in.  Garrett had never been to the Kirkwall Chantry, and damn was it big.

 

“Where is your friend Anders?” Garrett had no idea how to even begin to search this place.

 

“Up on that balcony” Anders pointed.  “We have to hurry!”

 

The group hurried up there, giving stealth a very small attempt.  Luckily for them there was a surprising lack of guards, and a good amount of Karl.

 

“Karl!” Anders rushed over to him, ditching the whole stealth plan.

 

“Anders I know you too well” with the way Karl spoke, Garrett already knew this was going to shit.  “I knew you’d never give up.”

 

“Why are you talking like” Anders had clearly been holding onto some small dredge of hope, that had just been crushed under a steel boot.

 

“I was too rebellious, like you, I had to be made an example of” now that he faced them all, it was clear Karl was gone.

 

  
“No!” Anders was doing so hot on the having his friend made tranquil scale right now.

 

“It’s alright, the Templars can teach you to master yourself too” this was apparently a signal for said Templars to drop in.  “He’s the apostate.”

 

“Yup, just him, no one else here” Bethany had already thrown her staff somewhere and was trying to cover Merrills.

 

“NO” Anders really was taking this hard apparently, Garrett wasn’t going to complain if it helped them all get out of this. 

 

“Seize the apostate!”

 

“YOU WILL NEVER” Anders was now glowing, Garrett liked this a little less.  “TAKE ANOTHER MAGE AS YOU HAVE TAKEN HIM.”

 

With an explosion of magic Anders kicked it into Templar killing gear, the others were fast to follow.  Garrett quickly rushed one of the archers and kicked him over the railing, the sound of bolts sinking into flesh prefaced the other falling to the floor.  Thankfully these guys didn’t come prepared for an even fight, or a healer to radiate magic like it was going out of season. 

 

“Hawke duck!” Merrills command was just in time to avoid taking Garrets head off.

 

“Thanks!” they also weren’t prepared for large rocks being blasted at them from the look of that guy.

 

“Fenris do something!” Bethany was doing her best to avoid being cut down with her parrying knife.

 

“Fine” Fenris effortlessly cut her attacker down.  “But only because we are killing slavers later, I do not agree with the killing of Templars.”

 

“Yes yes we all know you hate mages” Garrett didn’t like having to lecture people in the middle of trying to not die, but he needed some help.  “But a hand please?”

 

With a frustrated sigh Fenris cleared the Templar off Garrett.  Thanks to Varric and Anders, well mostly Anders, the rest of the men were dealt with.  Surprisingly, to really no one, this didn’t do much to calm Anders down.

 

“Anders?  What did you do” the voice of a much more alive sounding Karl did though.  “It’s like you brought the Fade here.”

 

“If that’s what you need” Merrill had her blood knife out.

 

“No, not right now” Garrett didn’t want to assume they wouldn't need it later.

 

“Karl you’re back!” Anders certainly seemed over the moon about this.

 

“Anyone want to explain what’s going on to the dwarf?” Varric was just looking between the two of them.

 

“The Tranquil are cut off from the fade entirely, it’s what makes them how they are” Bethany's voice had a tinge of fear at the idea.

 

“But with Anders, it’s like the Fade came here” Karls voice was filled with excitement.  “Oh it’s awful, like the sun is gone Anders, but you brought it back.”

 

“So their that kind of friends?” Varric raised an eyebrow at Garrett.

 

“Karl we’re getting you out of here come on” Anders was back to his normal demeanor now.

 

“No, I can already feel the light fading again” his eyes seemed to become dull in an instant.  “Please, kill me before it’s gone entirely.”

 

“Whoa there, let’s cool it on the murder everyone” Garrett moved closer to the two.

 

“You don’t understand, that’s not living, please Anders, before it’s gone again.”

 

“I understand” Anders voice quivered as he pulled Karl into an embrace, their bodies muffling the sound of the dagger.

 

“Thank you” Karl let these words out with his final breath.

 

“Let’s go, more Templars have to be coming” Anders quickly headed for the door.

 

The group followed him out, doing their best to avoid being sighted by an oncoming patrol.  Once that little situation was all cleared up they regrouped away from the Chantry.

 

“Where the hell did Anders go?” Garrett looked around for him, he’d clearly signaled this clearing to be the meetup spot.

 

“He did just murder his bestfriend, possibly lover, give him a minute” Varric had a good point there.

 

“I agree with Varric, we should focus all our attention on killing those slavers” Fenris really was riding on this to get through the night huh.

 

“Right, we go back to Darktown then, anyone need to make any pit stops along the way?”

 

“I’m a little bit tired, can we do a raincheck?” Merrill yawned mid sentence to punctuate her point.

 

“You can go back home Merrill, you’ve done plenty tonight.”

 

“Oh goody!” She skipped off towards home.  “Goodnight everyone!”

 

“To be clear you all don’t literally need me to dismiss you to leave right?”

 

“All I need is for you to point me in the direction of some slavers” to the point as always Fenris.

 

“Then we’re off” what a cheery way to reply.


	8. Is this what going to therapy feels like?

“Alright that's the lock Varric” Garrett was hoping to just get this all wrapped up ASAP.

“You call that a lock?” Varric pulled out a small tool and with a small flick of the wrist popped open the trap door.

“Ok we're looking for a vault that has a will in it, that lock might be a bit tougher buddy, anyone inside is a slaver so just go crazy Fenris.”

“Now this is how a night is supposed to be spent, not springing a mage from the Gallows” Fenris was cleaning his sword a gleam of excitement in his eyes.

“And this should make getting the house back pretty easy so that's a plus” Bethany clearly didn't understand how property ownership laws worked, but they were burning low on oil as is.

“Enough chit chat, let's go!” Garrett climbed through the entrance.

The place was a pretty typical rundown basement scenario. Rats, cobwebs, shitty tripwire, the works. This room looked like an old wine cellar, if the Amells drank by the barrel full. You motion for everyone to hide at the sound of approaching steps.

“Right, whoever you are, get the fuck out” this guy looked like a pretty typical slaver, the robe made it seem like he could be a mage too.

“How about this for a counter offer” Garrett pointed to Fernis, who was now in full glow mode.

“I see” he did see, very clearly as Fernis cut him down.

“And we're off to a great start” Garret proceeded up the stairs that came down, the rest in tow.

“Hey stop right there!” these guys needed to buy nicer clothes, ones that looked less slaver like.

“Nope” Garrett rushed forward at that guy, smashing him with the pommel of his sword.

For a smaller room, it could hold a ton of slavers. Maybe ten or so came in to join the fight. Fenris was having a field day. With the rest of you to cover him he just stayed on the offensive, making huge sweeping attack to cut down two men at once. These poor bastards really didn't stand a chance. The lucky ones got taken down by Varrics bolts, just a quick shot to the head. The rest were in pieces on the floor, Fenris had somehow cut one down perfectly in half, he was an artist of the battlefield.

“See, this, this right here” Fenris was covered in flood and some small bits of flesh, some might say he was looking rather hot right then. “Is what a good time looks like, I hope there's more of them.”

“I hope your place has a bath or something, we might have to dip you in a barrel on our way back” Varric was always thinking a head.

“What why?”

“You're joking right?” Varric laughed, a nervous shift in his eyes as he looked at the Hawkes.

“Of course I am” Fenris laughed back, it sounded a little forced like he didn't understand what Varric meant.

“That's a late problem, we're focusing on the now problems, which are finding a vault and killing” Garrett wanted to prevent and side tracking, he was fighting to keep his eyes open.

“My kind of man” alright Fenris, save that talk for after you're cleaned up.

It was fairly easy to navigate around here, most of the doors let to small rooms that had tables or beds in them. Finding the right path and climbing some more stairs brought the group to what looked a lot like a vault.

“Stop right there you trespassers” even more random guys, how many of them lived here?

“Trespassers? This is our family's estate” Bethany that still isn't how this works.

“Not anymore, we lawfully own this place, ergo you all are trespassers” he was technically correct, but that wasn't going to keep his head on his shoulders.

“Oh now whatever shall we, the group of people who have killed our way in, do” Garrett nonchalantly held his sword in one hand while shrugging.

“Not, uh, not kill us?” one of the lower ranking guys spoke up.

“Oh, Fernis is that on the agenda?”

“Can't say it is.”

“Sorry wrong answer, but your consolation prize is pretty good, Varric tell them what they've won.”

“It's this great weight loss diet, your whole body really separates from your head.”

“What if we just leave and we all act real cool about this?” the lead guy was picking up what you'd put down.

“Sorry no can do, Fenris here is gonna be real cranky if he doesn't get his daily dose of slaver heads to take home” it helped that Fenris always looked just a little bit cranky.

“Well, shit” and with that the fighting began.

Fenris took point again, rushing forward to carve out a space among the men. Garrett wanted some of the real action this time and followed after him, shattering one of the men's swords with a heavy overhead. Fighting back to back surrounded by foes the two cut them down effortlessly. Garrett thrust his sword through one of the men, pinning him to the wall. He grabbed a shield off the ground and blocked an incoming mace. Ducking under a sword he grabbed that man and hurled him into another, throwing them both into Fernis's next swing. The mace guy came back in with a jumping overhead, Garrett rolled to the side, watching it shatter part of the floor. Jumping to his feet Garrett prepared to deflect the next swing, only for Varric to shoot the man down.

“Rude, he was mine” Garrett dropped the shield and got work pulling his sword out of the wall and other man.

“Well I didn't see your name on him” Varric was already heading over to the safe, tools at the ready.

“You ever really need something but not know how bad till you get it” Fernis was, it looked like just basking in the moment.

“Just keep it in your pants while you're with us” Garrett hoped this wasn't some weird thing, but you never could know.

“Not like that, it's just after earlier today, my one chance of true freedom slipped through my fingers. But this, this helped remind me what really matters.”

“Killing bad people?”

“Killing slavers, there's too many bad people for me to kill them all, I'm a realist.”

“I've always said set reasonable goals” Garrett started cleaning his own sword off once it was out of he wall.

“Thank you for this, and again for the help earlier” the battle euphoria seemed to wearing off him now. “If you ever need some extra hands, preferably if you don't also have that other guy, feel free to find me.”

“Right, cause you'll be, somewhere I know.”

“I was planning on staying in the mansion up town, since it's empty currently” Fenris didn't seem to care about property laws either, you didn't care enough to explain what squatting is to him.

“Perfect it's right on the way to Aveline then, she's not a mage so I assume you'll love her.”

“She's already tied for my favorite person with an A name.”

“If now is a good time interject with you lovebirds, vault's open” Varric called over to them.

“Great, thanks” Garrett rolled his eyes at the lovebirds comment.

“The will is here!” Bethany excitedly grabbed and opened some fancy looking paper.

“And some free money” Garrett excitedly pocketed said free money, they'd hit the goal soon enough.

“I knew it! He's a liar they left the money to Mother” Bethany seemed so happy, with this kind of useless info.

“That's kind of rude of them, didn't Gamlen take care of them for like twenty years?” Garrett couldn't remember how long Gamlen has said before.

“Well yeah, but it wasn't his money!”

“Well you can find everyone random person he lost it to in a gambling match at let them know.”

“You're just trying to hurt my feelings now.”

“I'm trying to be reasonable with you, that piece of paper is kind of meaningless since there is no money and the house is now probably owned by the city since we just killed all those guys.”

“Oh, right. Should we have had them sign it over before killing them?”

“Yeah that would've been a good plan, too late for it now though” Garrett shrugged, too tired to really care now. “Let's just get home so you can gloat.”

“Home so early? No celebratory drinks?” oh Varric you bad influence you.

“Ok, one celebratory drink and then to bed” Garrett could use a drink after all the action tonight.

“My kinda man” Varric laugh a little before heading to the exit. “Meet you there Hawke, I'll get Fernis to somewhere he can clean up first.”

“Thank you Varric” Hawke really had no idea how to clean Fenris.

“Is it really that bad?” Fenris followed Varric out, still confused somehow.

“Right, to our uncle's hovel!” Garrett headed back to the trapdoor.

 

 


End file.
